"A companion piece to censorship is double standards."
John Pilger - https://consortiumnews.com/2017/10/28/hillary-clinton-keeps-pointing-fingers/
John Pilger - https://consortiumnews.com/2017/10/28/hillary-clinton-keeps-pointing-fingers/
2017-10-29
2017-10-27
2017-10-25
RIP Fats.
Antoine "Fats" Domino, Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino
As if I don't have enough reasons to not use Facebook ...
... here's another one.
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/facebook-testing-feature-could-forever-change-how-you-get-your-news
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/facebook-testing-feature-could-forever-change-how-you-get-your-news
In theory, Facebook users should only be seeing posts in their news feeds from pages they've opted to follow. Anyone who's been annoyed by sponsored posts knows that's not entirely true, but the majority of the time, if a news article appears on a feed, it's because a user's friend, or a page the user follows, posted it.
Now, as Filip Struhárik, editor and social media manager at Denník N, wrote in a Medium post on Monday, in six markets, Facebook is removing posts from users' main news feeds and relegating them (unbeknownst to the users) to the Explore page. Thanks to Explore, your main newsfeed—the source of everything from updates on your high school friends' babies to conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton—will become what Mashable writer Kerry Flynn calls a "battlefield of 'pay to play,' where publishers have to pony up the dough to get back into the News Feed."
So far, those six markets include Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Cambodia.
It's a nightmare for publishers that don't have the money to ransom their posts from the Explore page back into the main feed, but it also means individual users will have even less control over what appears in their feeds from the pages they follow. As Struhárik explains, users will still see content from their friends (and ads) on their main feed, but anything from pages they follow, including news sources, is in danger of being moved to Explore.
2017-10-23
Quote of the day - 10-23-2017.
Jeff Berg (https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/23/looking-for-a-glass-of-water-and-a-place-to-shit/)
"Our governments, our business classes, our entire economic and social order is dedicated to creating and defending large fortunes for small numbers."
That's the answer to why instead of spending $3.6 trillion on various efforts to help its people and the world, the US chose to spend it on wars and weapons.
"Our governments, our business classes, our entire economic and social order is dedicated to creating and defending large fortunes for small numbers."
That's the answer to why instead of spending $3.6 trillion on various efforts to help its people and the world, the US chose to spend it on wars and weapons.
2017-10-21
2017-10-20
2017-10-19
This just confirms what I've stated for some time - Star Trek is nothing more than a profit-making vehicle for CBS now.
What it was under Gene Roddenberry (TOS, TAS, first couple of TOS films, and the first 4 seasons of TNG) had his stamp and vision - that humans can really be something more and better in this life - and that discovering that together is how one grows (like other beings).
None of that is present in anything done since, and today's new show is no different -
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/18/star-o18.html
Or to put it another way - this is what's missing -
"The principal reason for this enduring popularity has been the franchise’s optimistic view of the future and its willingness to grapple with serious human problems. By the 23rd century, in the show’s future history, all of the basic problems of contemporary society, including war, poverty and racial and national divisions, have long since been overcome. The international cooperation among the crew members of the Enterprise suggested that the wars and conflicts of the 20th century, far from representing the essential rottenness of humanity, as has become almost an article of faith in certain artistic circles, would eventually be discarded in the further social and technological development of human civilization."
None of that is present in anything done since, and today's new show is no different -
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/18/star-o18.html
Or to put it another way - this is what's missing -
"The principal reason for this enduring popularity has been the franchise’s optimistic view of the future and its willingness to grapple with serious human problems. By the 23rd century, in the show’s future history, all of the basic problems of contemporary society, including war, poverty and racial and national divisions, have long since been overcome. The international cooperation among the crew members of the Enterprise suggested that the wars and conflicts of the 20th century, far from representing the essential rottenness of humanity, as has become almost an article of faith in certain artistic circles, would eventually be discarded in the further social and technological development of human civilization."
2017-10-18
Political Dissent under attack in the United States.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/18/pers-o18.html
"The destruction of democratic rights is the political response of the corporate and financial aristocracy to the growth of working class discontent bound up with record levels of social inequality. It is intimately linked to preparations for a major escalation of imperialist violence around the world. The greatest concern of the ruling elite is the emergence of an independent movement of the working class, and the state is taking actions to prevent it."
The desperate act of an empire that's declining - turn its might against its own citizens. It reminds me of the old saying from John F. Kennedy (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9100) -
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
"The destruction of democratic rights is the political response of the corporate and financial aristocracy to the growth of working class discontent bound up with record levels of social inequality. It is intimately linked to preparations for a major escalation of imperialist violence around the world. The greatest concern of the ruling elite is the emergence of an independent movement of the working class, and the state is taking actions to prevent it."
The desperate act of an empire that's declining - turn its might against its own citizens. It reminds me of the old saying from John F. Kennedy (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9100) -
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
2017-10-17
Well gee, now I want to know more about what Resolute is doing - trying to destroy the Boreal forest up on Canada apparently.
https://shadowproof.com/2017/10/17/logging-companys-attack-greenpeaces-environmental-activism-dismissed-federal-court/
Pesky thing about facts - trying to silence them doesn't seem to make them change or go away.
Pesky thing about facts - trying to silence them doesn't seem to make them change or go away.
2017-10-16
2017-10-15
2017-10-13
Jeff Bezos = Predatory Capitalism at work.
Thank you Jimmy Dore - as always.
Or better still - if you really want to make society work better for everyone - choose to spend your money at someplace other than places like Scamazon or Sprawlmart.
Dammit - Nationals stopped again.
Sigh.
Fucking Cubs - let's hope the Dodgers can dispose of them quickly.
Fucking Cubs - let's hope the Dodgers can dispose of them quickly.
2017-10-12
Take that private prison corporations!
Your secrets are going to be revealed -
https://shadowproof.com/2017/10/11/supreme-court-rules-private-prison-corporations-push-secrecy/
“This outcome is a decisive victory for government transparency and a reminder that private companies do not have the right to try to overturn government decisions regarding the release of information to the public,” stated Ghita Schwarz, senior staff attorney at CCR.
https://shadowproof.com/2017/10/11/supreme-court-rules-private-prison-corporations-push-secrecy/
“This outcome is a decisive victory for government transparency and a reminder that private companies do not have the right to try to overturn government decisions regarding the release of information to the public,” stated Ghita Schwarz, senior staff attorney at CCR.
2017-10-11
2017-10-09
The risk of learning about facts ...
... is that people who want to prevent this from becoming known amongst the public at large, will want to deem you crazy or insane.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/finding-our-way-back-to-truth-by-following-a-string-of-facts/5612561
https://www.globalresearch.ca/finding-our-way-back-to-truth-by-following-a-string-of-facts/5612561
Taking a break.
Because of CV jr, my employer deemed it 'appropriate' and 'well-earned' to take some time off from work (maybe they're sick of me there).
So here I am at home on a Monday morning, for the next few weeks. Perhaps I'll have a lot to update - we'll see.
So here I am at home on a Monday morning, for the next few weeks. Perhaps I'll have a lot to update - we'll see.
2017-10-05
Watching on Netfilx.
With a (new) little one at home now, I find myself watching a lot more television. This is not much of a surprise; I did the same with the previous ones.
What is different is how much has changed since then.
I watch a lot more stuff online now, and now that I can stream films via Netflix, I can now watch them on my PC, as well as my TV.
It is a little weird to go back and watch things I'd previously seen on regular TV and watch them through a service. Of course with the little one, one never gets through anything in one shot. He has to wake up, need to be changed, need to be fed, need to be burped, need to be set back to sleep, etc. This becomes quite the production such that it's hard to maintain one's focus on anything really for longer than 30 minutes.
Somehow I survive though.
My real gripe with Netflix however is all the crap they try push on me. I mean really - there's a great deal of it that's just ... well, crap. So I spend an inordinate amount of time sifting through endless lists of TV shows and movies that their software indicates would be something I'm interested in.
95-99% of the time, it's not the case - it's just wasting my time.
Don't get me wrong - I certainly prefer Netflix over say other say others who just treat you like a fucking number, and not a human being. I just wish they thought of my predicament more and really designed their solution to really select options that are really interesting for me.
What is different is how much has changed since then.
I watch a lot more stuff online now, and now that I can stream films via Netflix, I can now watch them on my PC, as well as my TV.
It is a little weird to go back and watch things I'd previously seen on regular TV and watch them through a service. Of course with the little one, one never gets through anything in one shot. He has to wake up, need to be changed, need to be fed, need to be burped, need to be set back to sleep, etc. This becomes quite the production such that it's hard to maintain one's focus on anything really for longer than 30 minutes.
Somehow I survive though.
My real gripe with Netflix however is all the crap they try push on me. I mean really - there's a great deal of it that's just ... well, crap. So I spend an inordinate amount of time sifting through endless lists of TV shows and movies that their software indicates would be something I'm interested in.
95-99% of the time, it's not the case - it's just wasting my time.
Don't get me wrong - I certainly prefer Netflix over say other say others who just treat you like a fucking number, and not a human being. I just wish they thought of my predicament more and really designed their solution to really select options that are really interesting for me.
2017-10-04
American Empire RIP by 2030?
Hard to really argue with this -
https://popularresistance.org/the-end-of-empire/
And a dire warning -
https://popularresistance.org/the-end-of-empire/
And a dire warning -
“For the majority of Americans, the 2020s will likely be remembered as a demoralizing decade of rising prices, stagnant wages, and fading international competitiveness,” McCoy writes. The loss of the dollar as the global reserve currency will see the U.S. unable to pay for its huge deficits by selling Treasury bonds, which will be drastically devalued at that point. There will be a massive rise in the cost of imports. Unemployment will explode. Domestic clashes over what McCoy calls “insubstantial issues” will fuel a dangerous hypernationalism that could morph into an American fascism.
A discredited elite, suspicious and even paranoid in an age of decline, will see enemies everywhere. The array of instruments created for global dominance—wholesale surveillance, the evisceration of civil liberties, sophisticated torture techniques, militarized police, the massive prison system, the thousands of militarized drones and satellites—will be employed in the homeland. The empire will collapse and the nation will consume itself within our lifetimes if we do not wrest power from those who rule the corporate state.
2017-10-03
An interesting list of companies for sure.
https://www.forbes.com/largest-private-companies/list/#tab:rank
No surprise - Cargill at the top again.
Money, money, money.
Profit, profit, profit.
No surprise - Cargill at the top again.
Money, money, money.
Profit, profit, profit.
Thank you Tom.
Your music will live on for many of us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Petty
Tom Petty
October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Petty
2017-10-01
Bernard, you disappoint me.
We saw this anti-democratic effort take place in the 2016 election right here in the United States, where we now know that the Russian government was engaged in a massive effort to undermine one of our greatest strengths: the integrity of our elections, and our faith in our own democracy.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/29/americas-role-in-the-world/
Really? Where's the evidence? Seems to me that's really Hillary Clinton talking and Senator Sanders repeating it.
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