Jul 142013
 

Writing early for day 30, I had difficulty finding material, because the media is consumed with the Zimmerman trial.  Hopefully it will stay below 90° today.

Jig-Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 5:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Bill Moyers: Across the world — Greece, Spain, Brazil, Egypt — citizens are turning angrily to their governments to demand economic fair play and equality. But here in America, with few exceptions, the streets and airwaves remain relatively silent. In a country as rich and powerful as America, why is there so little outcry about the ever-increasing, deliberate divide between the very wealthy and everyone else?

Media scholar Marty Kaplan points to a number of forces keeping these issues and affected citizens in the dark — especially our well-fed appetite for media distraction.

 

At almost an hour, this video is a very long short take, but it’s worth the time to watch.  They make a superb case that what he have here is NOT journalism. It is a mix of infotainment and infoganda.

From Right Wing Watch: Last week, Bryan Fischer called on Americans to "get busy" and start having more children in order to stave off the rise of immigrants who will take over the culture.

Guest-hosting for Fischer today was Iowa-based Religious Right radio host Steve Deace who issued his own call for Americans to get busy otherwise by the year 2030, the globe is going to be overrun by some 20 million radical Islamic jihadists who would put Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army to shame.

 

If this fool can’t calculate 1% of 2 billion, without help from the Internet, he should never have graduated high school. And he is encouraging people like himself to breed?!!? God help us!

From Think Progress: State Senator Mark Obenshain (R-VA), his party’s Republican nominee for Virginia Attorney General, said Thursday that he opposes “discrimination of any kind” and that he has “been clear” that employment discrimination “should not be tolerated in Virginia.” These statements are flatly contradicted by his own record, in which he has consistently supported allowing public employment discrimination against LGBT Virginians.

Democratic nominee State Sen. Mark Herring accepted an endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign Thursday, vowing that if elected, he would “be committed to protecting the civil rights of all Virginians,” and would “use the powers of the office to promote equality.”

Actually, it’s easier than that. Regardless of his personal beliefs Obershain is functionally opposed to Blacks, Latinos, Gays, Women, Muslims, Seniors, Workers, Students, and 99% of the American people, because good Republicans goose-step with each other’s hatred.  Vote for Herring!

Cartoon:

14Cartoon

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  17 Responses to “Open Thread–7/14/2012”

  1. Sorry TC but I can't check the name of the maths illiterate, utter dimwit and stranger to logic – was it Steve Dace? – as listening to that video has made my new cheap computer refuse to scroll up and down – even machinery is offended by the moron!  He couldn't work out that 1% of 2 billion is 20 million – I did in my head(!) and I'm no great shakes at maths – mind you I spotted the instant fallacy of having suggested that we imagine that 1% of the population are terrorists – dumbo then takes it as fact!  I sincerely hope that that offence to evolution never ever breeds!  Ah well, every country has them (sadly) so we must just try and get far enough down the foodchain to try and communicate with them! 

     

     

  2. 4:05 I won't be winning any sculling races today. It's probably a sad last for me.

  3. Bill Moyers ~ Sadly, it has been that way for too long. The American television consumer wants Fluff, not News.

    Right Wing Watch ~ Another wing-nut heard from! Will he feed his in-breds "Solyent Green" because of food shortages?

    Think Progress ~ Vote for Herring!

    Cartoon ~ Wouldn't they just love that!

     

     

  4. Like the 'toon, Cat Man….very fitting because that is exctly what the Teathuglicants would love to do.  They are doing their damndest to see it come to fruition.

     

    And they breed……..like Kochroaches.  Now…where is my giant industrial strength can of Raid…….

    • Everything Republicans do relates to tht or to tranferring poor and middle class money to the 1%.

      I guess I need to eat more beans!

  5. Puzzle — 4:33  Nobody is even in the shell with me!  Multiple seats and nobody is with me!

    Bill Moyers — A very interesting piece.  I find the crux of the discussion is embodied in the following excerpt.

    MARTY KAPLAN recently expressed wonder at this people's uprising and challenged us, his fellow Americans, "Let's Be Brazil." . . . 

    It's my feeling that what happened in Brazil, which is so encouraging about citizens taking their destiny in their own hands, is not happening here. We have unemployment and hunger and crumbling infrastructure and a tax system out of whack and a corrupt political system. Why are we not also taking to the streets is the question. And I want us to.

    BILL MOYERS: But you go on beyond the infotainment story. You say, "Our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked into our political system." . . . 

    MARTY KAPLAN: The control of our democracy by money is shocking and deserves the same kind of response to corruption that it got in Brazil. And instead, we have become used to it. We don't see a way around it. 

    I also listened to Moyer's interview with Joseph Campbell almost 30 years ago.  In the first of 6 episodes (short excerpts), Campbell talks about finding your passion and making that your life's journey.  Is it that we are so comfortable in our consumption that we don't know how to "…be Brazil"?  Are we so tied to the safety of the day-to-day that we have forgotten how to look at the bigger picture?

    I know these are just questions, but I think we have to make them a priority in order to move forward as global societies, to protect ourselves and Mother Earth.  We have to empower ourselves because lord knows, the politicians and billionaires won't do it.  And let's not forget, we outnumber the billionaires 99 to 1.

    Right Wing Watch — What a bunch of claptrap!

    …by the year 2030, the globe is going to be overrun by some 20 million radical Islamic jihadists who would put Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army to shame.

    Interesting!  Here I thought we were already being overrun . . . by the ultra conservative radical evangelical pseudo Christian fundamentalists, who in their rhetoric, put Adolf Hitler and his National Socialists to shame. 

    Respect goes a long way!

    Think Progress — I hope Virginians vote for the party of progress, not regress!  Vote for Herring!

    Cartoon — Just what the Republicanus/Teabaggers want — one party rule — their rule!

  6. Marty Kaplan should be on all the major networks making these same points.  That won't happen because it isn't infotainment.  I too was worn out trying to find news and only finding the Zimmerman trial.  Most people have no idea what you mean if you say something about the NSA or chained CPI, but they know all the latest Hollywood gossip.  Sad.

  7. So now we can see The New Lords& ladies,just like the Sherriff of Nottingham & Barons & Earls,we abandoned them to their fate,then they needed U.S.of AMERICA to save their asses! Time to bring them to ACCOUNT!

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