Excerpts from my feed
January 27 — In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Code Pink calls "for a cancellation of the F-35 program, an end to F-35 training in residential areas like South Burlington, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin, and a reinvestment of the project’s funds to life affirming programs." The letter also notes that Winooski is within the F-35 noise target zone and is "a working-class city, the most densely populated in Vermont, with the state’s most ethnic diversity."
As Code Pink notes, “F-35 fighter jet production was halted pending an investigation into the crash where the pilot was ejected from the aircraft. Now the Dept. of Defense is delaying full-rate production, potentially for another YEAR. This is a win for the people and the planet and bad news for the war profiteers at Lockheed Martin.”
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| THE REVENGERS: STUPIDITY GAME |
February 11 — Seymour Hersh claims President Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines after months of secret national security debate. The issue wasn’t whether to do it, he alleges, but how to get it done with no clue as to who was responsible. Shocking if true, but Hersh has been right before—from My Lai to Abu Ghraib. It defies the official line, but warrants investigation.
According to Bryce Green, who writes about Ukraine for FAIR, “This is significant given the ongoing mystery surrounding the attack. While U.S. media and government officials were quick to point at Russia, critics have cited the U.S.'s long-standing opposition to the pipeline as reason to suspect U.S. involvement. In early 2022, both Victoria Nuland and Joe Biden made direct statements about shutting down Nord Stream 2 in the context of a Russian invasion. Additionally, both Nuland and Blinken publicly expressed explicit satisfaction at the pipelines' demise.
"Seymour Hersh's reporting, while unconfirmed by other sources, does provide an explanation for U.S. behavior and is in line with stated U.S. objectives of cutting Germany off of Russian gas. It also gives operational details. When asked about the reporting, State Department spokesperson Ned Price denied what was in the report and claimed that Hersh was not a credible source."
February 15 — Farewell Raquel: Another iconic star leaves the scene, a breakthrough latina, lead in a memorable B-film that explored the relationship between humans and dinosaurs. (Spoiler: The Dinos die in the end.) Fifty years ago we owned a 16mm print and ran it with rock music during light shows. And who can forget her scientific adventures inside the body in Fantastic Voyage. She was even Myra Breckinridge. That’s courage and range. Onward to her role beyond.
February 19 — Farewell to Another Legend: Back in the 90s, as Richard Belzer moved into his Law & Order period, we met one day on a Manhattan sidewalk. I called his name and he replied, “Guilty.” A quick, politically sharp comedian who became an icon. Everyone loved Munch, his TV detective role, who first emerged on Homicide: Life on the Street. Then moved to Law & Order: SVU. The show still refers to him. His conspiracy-fueled writing and film cameos (Scarface, Fame, Night Shift, etc) were also great.
March 3 — If it was a film, my childhood might look like the opening of The Godfather, that idyllic scene when the Italian extended family celebrates a marriage. The facade is soon shattered, but even a young outsider could feel safe for a while. It was like a colorful garden party just before a storm.
March 15 — Boo! It’s the Ides of March, 15th of the month on the Roman calendar. Once it was marked by religious observances and served as a deadline for Romans to settle debts. Of course, it also marks the assassination of Julius Caesar. But the prophecy, “Beware the Ides of March,” is actually another example of fake news.
In his play, Shakespeare connected the date with an ominous warning — from a soothsayer — a fortune-teller, you might say — to the soon-to-be ex-Roman emperor as he made his way to the Capitol that fateful day in 44 BC. It was essentially a dramatic device, foreshadowing.
But even the great playwright couldn’t have imagined the life that phrase has taken on. Today we’d call it a meme. The words definitely stuck, and branded the phrase and the day with a dark connotation.
On the other hand, most people who use the phrase don’t know it’s original meaning. In fact, almost every pop culture reference to the Ides— except for some of those in historically-faithful books and films—makes it seem like the day is cursed. Spooky.
The Ides of March actually has a non-threatening origin story. Kalends, Nones and Ides were ancient markers used to reference dates in relation to lunar phases. Ides referred to the first full moon of a given month, usually between the 13th and 15th. Actually, the Ides of March once signified the new year, which meant celebrations and rejoicing. So happy New Year.
Yet, when heroes in movies, books and TV shows are faced with the Ides of March, it’s always a bad omen, never good news. Several TV shows have had episodes named “The Ides of March.” A tip off for tragedy.
So, did the murder of Caesar curse the day, or was it Shakespeare’s words? Or maybe was it Caesar’s fault. You could also blame the victim here. Just two years before he was butchered by the Senate, Julius Caesar uprooted Rome’s New Year celebration by moving it from the traditional March 15 to January.
March 19 — Surprise! We finally know the truth about one of the most destructive decisions of the last half century. It happened in October of 1980, at the close of the presidential campaign that made Ronald Reagan president. One of his close advisers, John Connelly, in a bid to become secretary of state, had traveled to Middle Eastern capitals to meet with regional leaders. There he delivered blunt advice to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Reagan will win and give you a better deal. They apparently got the message.
Until now, the fact that the American hostages in Iran were released on the same day Reagan was inaugurated has been considered highly suspicious but unexplained. It subsequently became the first “October surprise.” At the time there were allegations that Reagan’s team had purposely slowed down the hostage release. But no proof.
And was it really the first? The idea of creating a pre-election surprise that potentially influences the outcome goes back further. In October 1968, for example, the surprise might have been called “Mission Not Accomplished.” As the race between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon was winding down, President Lyndon Johnson announced a bombing halt of North Vietnam on Oct. 31. He apparently hoped that peace negotiations would bear fruit by the time of the election. They didn’t, and Nixon won.
Less than a month before the 1972 election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern was decided, Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, announced that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam. Nixon was already winning, but Kissinger's statement further increased his standing. The war continued until 1975.
March 28 — A Florence museum has invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to view Michelangelo's ’David’ in person after the principal was forced to resign. Parents complained that an image of the Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class. According to AP, Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also invited the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. She called confusing art with pornography “ridiculous.”
Reporter John Bussey clarified, “Italy counsels Florida to loosen up.”
April 4 — Accidental Comedy: Marjorie Taylor Green left her own protest minutes after arriving as anti-Trump protesters drowned her out. NYC Mayor Eric Adams mentioned her by name, warning protesters to be on their best behavior. Green whined before leaving, “Mayor Adams, you send your henchmen down here to commit assault against people by making loud noises.”
It’s another case of irony deficiency, fast becoming a Republican pandemic.
April 8 — Rome’s first emperor gained power over public institutions by eliminating critics and repopulating the bureaucracy with loyalists. As president, Trump was working on that, and would certainly finish the job in a second term.
May 21 — WARNING! The NAACP Board of Directors has issued a formal travel advisory for the state of Florida. "Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the notice states. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color." This is a response to Gov. Ron DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.
May 23 — FLORIDA SNAKE JUMPS THE SHARK: Here’s a prime example of red-baiting with a smirk, a hallmark of the new fascism. In response to travel advisories based on rising racism and attacks on civil liberties, Rick Scott has decided to threaten and mock at the same time. Classy move, easy target. But we shouldn’t be shocked; we knew he was a poisonous snake when we took him in. This snake is probably not far off in suggesting that many of his constituents (victims?) are openly hostile…to quite a few things. Is it the sun? Anyway, Rick has been one of the chaos groomers who turned the Sunshine State into a morally exhausted death cult.
Maybe it’s possible to make Florida sane again. God knows, or maybe not. I won’t hold my breath — or visit soon. Hopes and prayers, Florida folk. Stay indoors, get rid of all those snakes, or move north.
May 24 — Farewell to a Queen: Tina Turner died peacefully today at 83 after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her family said. Often called “the Queen of Rock ‘n Roll,” she was the first woman and first Black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. Her great solo career broke barriers for future generations of Black women in music.
Turner sometimes referred to herself as a "Buddhist–Baptist.” Raised in the Baptist church, where her father was a deacon, she converted to Buddhism as an adult. During hard times, she chanted four hours a day. In 2013, near the end of a remarkable life that impacted culture and the lives of millions around the world, she became a citizen of Switzerland.
A force of nature, she will be missed.
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| Summer 1970, Tanglewood Music Center In Lenox, Mass. |
June 21 — Alito and the Vulture: So, who is Paul Singer, the hedge-fund billionaire who gave Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito a free trip on his private plane in 2008? Alito accompanied Singer on a luxury fishing excursion in Alaska, but never disclosed the trip. Six years later he ruled with a majority of justices in favor of Singer’s hedge fund in a major case against the nation of Argentina. An arm of Singer’s Elliott Management sought several billion dollars in debt repayment from Argentina, one of several cases involving Singer’s company that came before the court. Alito appears to have broken financial disclosure law, which requires disclosure of gifts of private jet flights. Prosecution please!
In Vultures' Picnic, investigative journalist Greg Palast pulled together documents and stories from three decades of detective work to expose real life vulture capitalists like Singer. “The vultures get their hands on money that they claim is owed by the poorest nations, usually during a civil war,” he explained. “Then they find loopholes and seize all the wealth.”
I talked with Palast in December 2011, before a speech in Vermont, covering BP's crimes in the Gulf and Caspian Sea, Entergy's exploitation of hurricane Katrina, and how Uber-Vulture Singer tried to knock him him off British TV. At the time Singer was the the number one US vulture, an advisor to then presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He was also the number one donor to the Republican Party. “He makes his money by literally killing babies, according to the former Deputy Secretary of the UN,” Palast charged.
Singer “picked up bonds with a face value printed on them of $100 million” during the Congo’s civil wars. He paid about $10 million, but won a judgment to collect $400 million.” Earlier, he made a killing on Owens Corning, buying the company cheap after revelations that its asbestos plants were linked to worker deaths.
July 12 — Neighbors tell me it’s that time of year again, when our darker thoughts go to nuclear detonations, destruction and angst. This year it’s apparently personal, down to one name — Oppenheimer. I’m looking forward to Nolan’s film, but honestly, we’ve been obsessing over nukes since the late 1940s and it’s surprising things haven’t been worse.
July 27 — TRENDING HOT, RUNNING AMOC: Scientists say the Gulf stream could collapse as soon as 2025. That leads the news in UK’s Guardian. The good news? Well, at least scientists disagree about the timing. Could be more than two years. That’s a relief.
Apparently, the collapse of what’s called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) would have disastrous consequences around the world. According to the professor who led the study, “This would be a very, very large change. The Amoc has not been shut off for 12,000 years.” As Frederic Tomesco puts it, “Amoc running amok?”
That is somewhat misleading. Dr. Jonathan Foley has clarified in a thread about the difference between the Gulf Stream and the AMOC, and Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf notes, “Uhmm — not the Gulf Stream but the AMOC. The AMOC contributes about 15 million m3/s to the Gulf Stream, the latter totals 90. But the AMOC delivers the bulk of the heat so it matters to climate.”
Meanwhile, South Florida waters have hit hot tub level and may have set a world record for warmest seawater ever measured, according to Seth Borenstein via Associated Press. In addition to being fuel for hurricanes, hotter water is already having an impact in the area, from coral bleaching to the death of some corals in what had been one of the Florida Keys’ most resilient reefs. So, you can’t wage a culture war without some innocent casualties.
In other Too Hot News, “Thirsty Data Centers Are Making Hot Summers Even Scarier.” On Bloomberg Businessweek, Clara Hernanz Lizarraga and Olivia Solon explain: “Water-guzzling data centers are becoming even thirstier with the rise of generative AI — exacerbating tensions in the communities where they are located.” Kevin Whitelaw shares a choice quote: “People are not aware of the amount of water that goes into watching a kitten meme.”
So, how long before some AI figures out it needs the water more than us?
August 27 — Harbingers of Trumpian chaos: Silvio and Muammar, med-state soulmates and all-around strange dudes, back in 2010. Less than a year later Gaddafi was killed by rebels.
September 18 — Profiles in Dictatorship: One of his most significant accomplishments was to destroy the insitution that brought him to power. Whether calculated or instinctive, he demonstrated that there was no middle ground between the pursuit of absolute power and preservation of the party’s ideals. In fact, he went after the party, since it provided an umbrella under which other members could articulate different viewpoints and build the internal coalitions needed to implement them. There was nowhere that party members could go; either accept his shifting, often confusing interpretations of priorities or face expulsion. Or worse. Not surprising, institutional trust broke down, replaced by fealty to a single individual. A cult of personality.
Who is being described? Actually, Joseph Stalin, who corrupted the original communist vision and left behind a group of “little Stalins.” But just about everything above also applies to Donald Trump. So, it’s no wonder he admires Putin, Kim Jong Un and the rest of today’s Injustice League. Or call them the Revengers
Other Stalin-Trump similarities: giant egos; colossal liars; extremely suspicious and power-hungry; rely on fear to increase and solidify support; and think of anyone who challenges their inflated view of themselves as an enemy.
Historian Walter G. Moss, who had explored the comparisons, sums up this way. Trump “is not the monster Stalin was, but the evil he has already unleashed and his potential for causing greater future evil should not be underestimated.” And he wrote that before Jan. 6.
September 23 — Name that autocrat: It was a cultural revolution, a decade-long period of political and social chaos, mainly caused by one man. Once he gave his loyal rebels permission to attack power holders and institutions, and once they gained enough traction from various disenchanted groups, it was inevitable that they would turn their attention to the Party establishment. Officials were exposed to public humiliation; sometimes they were hounded from office. And once the movement had consolidated, the party couldn’t win back its former authority.
I might be talking about Trump, his MAGA movement, and the Republican Party. But it’s actually a description of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Like Trump, Mao was aware of the turmoil and violence he set loose, a dangerous anti-institutional mood that led to extremism, breakdown and more division. If Mao was alive, he might admire Trump’s style. And Trump surely yearns for the power of the Chairman.
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