Open Thread–6/13/2012

 Posted by at 1:23 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 132013
 

I’m writing early again, because I want to do so, and since I slept well last night, I’m actually doing so without a struggle.  That’s sure refreshing for a change.  Today’s Short Takes are all MSNBC videos, and I hope you find them as interesting and informative as I did.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: Why the Surveillance State Must Be Undone

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As I have said before, secret power virtually guarantees abuse, and history proves it. That means that it will be used on all who wish to restore government observance of our Constitutional rights. We have been down this road before, and we must install a road block.

From MSNBC: Welcome scandals for a change!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is one basic difference between these Republicans and most of the rest. These got caught receiving their payoffs from the 1%, where most get away with it.

From MSNBC: One of the reasons why the 1% could not allow Kennedy to live.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Am I the only one that misses Chet Huntley? The 1% depends on keeping different elements of our culture fearful and hateful of each other. Kennedy was a threat to class warfare, and we are still battling to overcome racism and the economic subjugation that attends it. Yes we do know whose side Jack Kennedy would have been on, making him an enemy of InsaniTEA.

Cartoon:

13Cartoon

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  23 Responses to “Open Thread–6/13/2012”

  1. Lynn Squance says:
    June 13, 2013 at 2:01 am

    3:25  Damn, that little fur ball was chasing me, trying to nip my cute little pussy cat tail!

  2. gene jacobson says:
    June 13, 2013 at 5:32 am

    You're not the only one who misses Chet Huntley.  I miss David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite too, giants of journalistic integrity.  It's interesting to listen to that speech because the thing that leaped out at me from it, apart from the obvious, was the absence of the word woman, our constitution and laws ought be not only color blind but gender blind as well.  We still haven't gotten to the place JFK envisioned, but we're moving in that direction.  I was 13 years old then, I remember the times well.  I had no direct experience of racism as a kid growing up in an all white farming community.  I didn't meet an African-American until I joined the service 5 years later.  We have come a long way but we have a long way yet to travel.  And, as that bigot of the 70's, Archie Bunker, would say, "you ain't seen nothing yet." 

    • TomCat says:
      June 14, 2013 at 1:33 am

      Welcome Gene. 🙂

      All three indeed!  I noticed "men" as well, but that issue was to come later.  It's like the very progressive Star Trek and 'no man has goner before."

      My father was an extreme racist.  It sickened me.

  3. Patty says:
    June 13, 2013 at 7:26 am

    All very interesting especially the cartoon.

  4. SoINeedAName says:
    June 13, 2013 at 8:07 am

    Today would be Anne Frank's 84th Birthday!  The Atlantic has posted the only surviving film footage of her taken before she went into hiding.

    On July 22, 1941, a woman who lived on the second floor of Merwedeplein 39, Amsterdam, celebrated her wedding. Looking on from the balcony next door, was a 12-year-old Anne Frank.

    She flickers onto the screen for just a few brief seconds. She looks around, turns to shout to someone inside, and returns her gaze to the scene below.

    The footage, taken on July 22, 1941, is the only existing film footage of her. She died in March of 1945. Today would have been her 84th birthday.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/06/the-only-surviving-film-footage-of-anne-frank/276813/

  5. Pat A says:
    June 13, 2013 at 10:55 am

    Brilliant videos TC – and most instructive.  I hope each of us is gifted with all the virtues of the original rights activists (in every sphere) – they had to be so tough and determined and moral to survive!

    Re surveillance – there has never ever been a govt dept that has just stopped at a certain point with the powers they were given – it is human nature to always want more – and to be able to justify that.  I am reminded of WWII when at the start only two govt depts in the UK were allowed to demand to see people's papers and find out private info on them – by the end of the war that had multiplied to astonishing numbers.  It is a sober warning (in a mass of other warnings about this). 

    Secret courts giving judgments on people who have no right of defence have occurred several times in history – notably the Star Chamber of Henry VII in England.  Hen VII instituted a reign of terror – anyone could be hauled up in front of that court on trumped up charges and fined colossal amounts or much much worse.  Every single bad government in history has done this – and I don't want them to recur again – anywhere!!

     

     

    • TomCat says:
      June 14, 2013 at 1:39 am

      You're welcome Pat  You're right.  When I went south to demonstrate with them as a teen, they took extra care to protect me from my own fearlessness.

      That's exactly my point.

      Interesting!  Thanks.

  6. Edith Belcher says:
    June 13, 2013 at 10:05 pm

    Pat A., I totally agree.  Anything that must be done in secret bodes no good for the common citizen. 

    TC, good luck tomorrow. 

  7. Lynn Squance says:
    June 14, 2013 at 12:35 am

    Puzzle — 3:25  Damn, that little fur ball was chasing me, trying to nip my cute little pussy cat tail!

    MSNBC — "secret power virtually guarantees abuse" — That is so true.  There is no way to verify the abuse unless someone like Snowden speaks up.  Civil disobedience, which I believe was Snowden's original action, is legitimate.  But I am afraid that he has crossed the line by his second revelation — the US hacking of China's computer systems.  There is always more no matter what side of the fence people stand!

    MSNBC — McDonnell and Cuccinelli both under investigation.  What a team!  Poor Virginia!  What will happen to the Virginia Republican/Teabaggers?

    MSNBC — JFK Jr has always been a favourite of mine because he stood up against the racism that George Wallace not only espoused, but actively worked to keep in place.  I have seen several articles today about Wallace standing resolute at U of Alabama to block the entrance of two black students.  But Kennedy just "knocked" him aside and history was changed.  It doesn't mean that more changes are not needed, but those were big steps in 1963.  I was 11 at the time and remember seeing it.

    Cartoon — As Martin Luther King Jr said "We shall over come."  and that applies equally to the attempts in the 21st century to suppress the black vote, the Hispanic vote etc.

     

    • TomCat says:
      June 14, 2013 at 1:46 am

      Crunched.  Why does a cute little pussycat tail need big feet to hold it up? 😉

      Civil didovedience incluses taking responsibility for one's actions.

      Timer will tell.  Plenty, I hope.

      OI rtemember it too.  Before George Wallace repented, he was certainly extreme.  Among today's Republicans, his worst would be considered moderate, because he blocked them instead of shooting them.

      Amen!

       

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