I’m writing for tomorrow, day 60. Both today and tomorrow are high holy days in the Chur4ch of the Ellipsoid Orb, but my Broncos have Wildcard Week off, due to their superior play. I’m running late, because I actually slept seven hours in two installments, between 2 AM and Noon.
Jig Zone Player:
Today’s took me 4:08 (average 6:32). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Huffington Post: Federal regulators are expected to vote next month on rules to govern how Internet service providers deal with the flow of content on their high-speed networks.
The five-member Federal Communications Commission will consider then a proposal from Chairman Tom Wheeler on so-called net neutrality rules, agency spokeswoman Kim Hart said Friday. She was confirming reports in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal on the planned timing of the vote. Details of the draft proposal weren’t disclosed.
President Barack Obama has asked the FCC to put Internet service providers under the same rules as those imposed on telephone companies 80 years ago. The aim is to protect net neutrality, the concept that everyone with an Internet connection should have equal access to all legal content online, including video, music, email, photos, social networks and maps.
Obama has this issue exactly right.
From Baltimore Sun: It was a dead rat the detective found on his windshield of his Toyota Corolla on a fall morning, the corpse peeking out from under the windshield wiper — a sign, he thought, that his colleagues in the department saw him as a snitch.
Detective Joseph Crystal had been in contact with prosecutors who eventually filed charges against his sergeant and another officer in connection with the beating of a drug suspect. The rat appeared a few weeks later.
This officer must be praying that he does not need backup in the future. He knows his brother officers will hang him out to die, because he broke the code by failing to help cover up a fellow officer’s crime. This underlines the need for citizen review boards that protect the identity of officers who testify honestly.
From Washington Post: Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars.
The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.
No doubt I’ll have lots of issues about which to write in the coming year. I wish that were not so. Because of the thousands of victims they will kill and impoverish in the process.
Cartoon:
19 Responses to “Open Thread–1/4/2015”
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Huff Post – I do hope that America doesn't get a two-tier speed system for the internet – at least we have (pro tem) stopped that in Europe… let's hope they don't want to be outdone by Europe and make sure one speed for all internet users stays put.
Baltimore Sun – God bless and protect all principled whistleblowers who alert the world to crimes and injustices – and God bless and protect this officer as I agree with you TC, life could get very difficult/dangerous for him very quickly. How is it that in organisations who trumpet their devotion to law and order and the common good and serving others, that evil can take over in such a way that they unite to persecute the one speaking out about wrong-doing?
6:36 average up a second.
HuffPo – to me it doesn't bode well that he will not release the draft. On the other hand, he's had a big taste of public opinion over the last several months, so maybe he's keeping it undiaclosed to the cable companies. Naaah, I'm dreaming there.
Baltimore Sun – CS Lewis had a quote he used more than once, something like "The flower of evil never blooms so brightly as in the shadow of the altar." I can't find it, so it's probably a translation from another language. Knowing Lewis, it's probably a few hundred years old. The point being that once something evil is entrenched in an organization founded on goodness, to represent goodness, there's no stopping it. And that this has always been so. We need to stop being surprised. Perhaps if Crystal's fellow officers will not have his back, the public needs to. I'm not sure what that would look like. But I'd like to see it.
WaPo – In my opinion, it's even worse than it looks, because some Dem governors are DINOs. I am trying not to be paralysed with fear. I will need to be choosing my battles.
Cartoon – There's a rubber stamp available from Move to Amend that you can use to stamp currency "Not to be used for bribing politicians." It is perfectly legal.
http://move-to-amend.myshopify.com/products/self-inking-stamp-not-to-be-used-for-bribing-politicians-self-inking-stamp-not-to-be-used-for-bribing-politicians
You know how it is, I find the petitions after I read TC. Here's one about the USPS:
http://allianceforamerica.us/?p=283
Joanne's USPS petition above signed.
We can thank Rep. Darrell Issa (R) for screwing the USPS with his anti-USPS rhetoric and passages of bills aimed at shutting the entire postal system down and privatizing it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/08/1185081/-Rep-Darrell-Issa-Responsible-for-U-S-Postal-Service-Fiasco-LOTS-of-Videos#
Given how many tech and small businesses also weighed in for net neutrality, I'm more optimistic about the FCC outcome than I was.
I recently read where one state (can't recall for sure which–maybe WI or MI) now requires investigations of police officers who kill someone have the majority not from their dept. or local system–not sure it also applies to beatings, but it should and all states should do likewise (Citizen Review Boards' reviews of biased investigations may not bring justice).
I hope these legislators also hear how the growth industries corporations (e.g., high tech) are abandoning ALEC because of how much is not good for them and only good for industries that may be dying or otherwise trying not to change to avoid obsolescence. If they do, they may push fewer unconstitutional statutes that waste taxpayers' funding that could be used for something else that creates value and benefits residents and the state.
Kudos on 60.
may the donks get beat so all the whining and crying is over quickly.
hell the tears are finally starting to dry up from last year about this time.
if only both teams of these contests could lose we'd all be better off.
Love the cartoon. 🙂
3:46 Pretty flower. I wonder if this is one of the flowers that traditionally flowers at Christmas time. It certainly has the colour for it.
4:55 I think it is an ugly flower. It matches my ugly time.
I can't tell. I didn't get to taste it, because of the Sasquatch. 🙁
Puzzle — 3:46 Pretty flower. I wonder if this is one of the flowers that traditionally flowers at Christmas time. It certainly has the colour for it.
Huffington Post — Net neutrality must be protected. It is no different in its use than the telephone was 80 years ago. I have already run into situations that if you don't have access to the internet, you are toast. And it will become so as time goes on. Things change but the idea of net neutrality cannot be one of them. The internet must be regulated like a public utility, much like Ma Bell.
Baltimore Sun — A neighbour of mine is an RCMP constable. In a discussion we had one day, he lamented the fact that if his fellow constables did not feel he was "playing the game", he could find himself alone after asking for backup. There is the matter of public trust. An officer muster be seen as doing the right thing and not taking liberties. I am glad that the sargeant and Williams were found guilty. I hope that Crystal stands tall and does not suffer any reprisals.
Washington Post — Seems to me that Republicanus/Teabaggers never saw an average American that they didn't want to roll over or use as cannon fodder.
Cartoon — When I first started banking, I was told that defacing bills was illegal and not considered legal tender. Try telling that to a pub with its beer soaked money that has all sorts of things written on many bills, including HRM Queen Elizabeth II with devil horns or a beard. Now, in trying to confirm this, I see that
"The Currency Act states that "no person shall melt down, break up or use otherwise than as currency any coin that is legal tender in Canada." Similarly, Section 456 of The Criminal Code of Canada says: "Every one who (a) defaces a current coin, or (b) utters a current coin that has been defaced, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."
However neither the Currency Act nor Criminal Code mention paper currency. It therefore remains legal to completely destroy paper currency."
So I very much like the "This is not free speech" on the US bill, and I also like JD's stamp. LMAO!
Sorry you have the thin red line.
Huh?
US cops refer to themselves as the thin blue line amd use that metaphor as an excuse for many of their criminal practices. I frigured that with Mounties, it would be a thin red line for their red unifoirm jackets.
Ahhhhh! Thank you.
🙂
Huffington Post: I hope the FCC does what the President has asked, otherwise net neutrality is a goner.
Baltimore Sun: This officer might as well transfer to another department in another city. He will get no back up where he is. Sadly, this happens too often, the renegade cop gets protected by the honest ones in the name of brotherhood.
Washington Post: Yes, TC, you will have lots to write about in the coming year. Then new crop in Congress will make us wish for Sharia law here. They will jam down our throats all their right wing agendas. This is what happens when Americans don't care enough to vote.
Cartoon: But, TC, the Supreme court says it is. Don't they make the law of the land?
No. They just misinterpret it.
Thanks all. Rush mode. Hugs.