Quick Notes
Use this space to comment on random stuff that doesn’t fit with current topics on the Humboldt Herald.
This is the sixth “Quick Notes” page. Archives of past “Quick Notes” appear in the sidebar under Pages.
Happy chatting.
Use this space to comment on random stuff that doesn’t fit with current topics on the Humboldt Herald.
This is the sixth “Quick Notes” page. Archives of past “Quick Notes” appear in the sidebar under Pages.
Happy chatting.
Did anyone else notice that the latest bumf from Norman Solomon includes a lovely coastal view of Point Sur, not in our district?
Then there’s his “Jeopardy” hit piece on Stacey Lawson. . .just lost my vote.
When the Georgia legislature passed a private school scholarship program in 2008, lawmakers promoted it as a way to give poor children the same education choices as the wealthy.
The program would be supported by donations to nonprofit scholarship groups, and Georgians who contributed would receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits, up to $2,500 a couple. The intent was that money otherwise due to the Georgia treasury — about $50 million a year — would be used instead to help needy students escape struggling public schools.
That was the idea, at least. But parents meeting at Gwinnett Christian Academy got a completely different story last year.
“A very small percentage of that money will be set aside for a needs-based scholarship fund,” Wyatt Bozeman, an administrator at the school near Atlanta, said during an informational session. “The rest of the money will be channeled to the family that raised it.”
Read it all here…
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/education/scholarship-funds-meant-for-needy-benefit-private-schools.html?ref=education
My wife just got a SIGNED birthday card from Karen Brooks. You can imagine how thrilled she was. Ever wonder where people get this information, and WHAT ELSE they know about you? And how much money was made selling it to them? Interestingly, it came with a “USA GO GREEN” forever stamp.
Walt, politicians get birthday information from the voter registration records. Its a creepy tactic.
walt,
Most likely, voter registration records include date of birth. Those records are available to all candidates for phone lists and mailing lists. Maybe there should be a law to redact the DOB, which is really nobody’s business.
What sort of person would change their vote because someone they don’t know sent them a birthday card? Does that create a social obligation or bond I’m blind to? What if it’s been personally signed by the person I don’t know?
I just spent 10 worthless minutes on the phone with political telemarkerter about proposition 29. The lady did not speak english very well and understood it even less. She was also hampered by the rules not allowing her to accept direct answers to questions. I was not allowed to state my race or age and had to endure groups of possible responses. The survey was a pro tax increase on tobacco, as, unless you support it children and old people will die stuff. I hung up finally.
Thanks for archiving “Quick Notes” Number Five, Heraldo, and giving us Number Six. Makes me proud to have suggested it in the first place. (Also makes it so much quicker to find my way to the bottom of the page so as to add new comments.) :)
Number Five got way too long. Thanks for your patience.
This may be a really big deal, really soon. Very inexpensive solar that can be manufactured on automated systems, with good efficiency:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7399/full/nature11067.html
End of the Charade: The airwaves are already filled with blaring political attacks masquerading as “issue ads,” such as the one in Missouri in the United States Senate race that ends with: “Call Claire McCaskill. Tell her Missouri doesn’t need government-run health care.” This ad, and dozens like it, is sponsored by the United States Chamber of Commerce, which likes to claim that it is merely educating voters about the issues rather than telling them how to vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/opinion/end-of-the-charade.html?ref=opinion
Great letter to the Editor in the Times-Standard today:
Don’t you dare take gazebo away
Letter to the Editor
times-standard.com/
Posted: 05/30/2012 02:00:34 AM PDT
I am writing to register my disapproval of the proposal made to the Eureka City Council to take down the gazebo, the fountain and many of the trees in Old Town. The gazebo plaza is one of Eureka’s loveliest places for those of us who live here and for tourists to visit. The sound of the fountain waters adds to our town’s atmosphere. The gazebo and fountain add beauty to Old Town; the sight of children feeding pigeons brings smiles to the faces of those who pass by. While eating their lunches there, shoppers and workers relax. Friends and families meet at the gazebo to share time in these peaceful surroundings.
Taking down these charming parts of Eureka will leave a bleak scene that is special in no way. In addition, it would cost a great deal to remove them and cause disruption to Old Town. Each aspect of this proposal would hurt business at a time when every dollar is needed. Everyone to whom I have talked about the gazebo and fountain is shocked that someone would propose removing them.
Please join me in urging our council to refuse to take such a reckless step in order to save some monthly expenses. Old Town will continue to require maintenance, regardless of what is placed there. Let’s not be penny wise and pound foolish. Eureka needs to keep our gazebo, the fountain and the beautiful trees right where they are.
Doris Gildesgaard Eureka
Worthy of a Humboldt Herald article, if you ask me.
(Just WHO is behind this crazy idea of getting rid of our beloved Gazebo?)
The legal system has completely failed when it comes to bringing the patent system into the modern world — if Microsoft had proposed patenting the idea of an operating system or a word processor, they probably would have been granted a patent. They might even have won in our legal system if they tried patenting the idea of ending a sentence with a period.
But one judge has proven himself tech savvy enough to prevent a company from copyrighting something called an API — an application programming interface. It’s hard to summarize, but Judge William Alsup basically ruled that nobody can copyright “problems” — as long as you write your own solution to a particularly framed problem, no one can sue you for violating their copyright on the problem’s framing.
This seems to be a huge, rare victory for sanity in the legal system. It will be interesting to see if it gets covered in the non-tech media.
The attempt to patent an API was due to the fine folks at Oracle. Take a moment to be glad they failed.
Rex Bohn’s slate mailer, currently arriving in your mail box, tries to trick you into thinking it’s an official Democratic Party mailing. No, it doesn’t say Democratic Party anywhere on it, so the mailer can stay on ‘the windy side of the law’ as Shakespeare put it. But the slate being endorsed includes the President, Senator Feinstein and other Dem candidates, and the word Democratic is prominently featured and there’s even a quote from Hillary. If it looks like a duck and quacks like one you begin to think that maybe it’s a duck – or a trick in this case.
Speaking of the windy side of the law – or not – Rex paid an outfit called Democratic Voters Choice for this mailer. Who are they? Why they’re the slate mailing arm of political consultants Durkee & Associates. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the business of Kinde Durkee. If you don’t know her name, you’ve probably heard about what she did:
LA Times March 31, 2012
I’m pretty sure giving this woman money wasn’t the best call.
Today, we received a copy of the mailer, too.
Thank you for that post and background information, O6em.
Nive work.
This just in: Robin Arkley ranks #27 on the list of California’s political influence purchasers, with over $2,000,000 invested…er, given…to political causes in the last decade.
More than enough to buy Bohn, and Brady, and Jager etc…
http://rainmaker.apps.cironline.org/
Paul Krugman has a new book, “End this Depression Now.” The link takes you to the last minute or two of a talk he gave recently, when he responds to a question about what the general public can do.
Hmmm. I guess the link takes you to the beginning. You could drag the slider to 44:20 to get to his discussion of what the public can do.
With our beautiful afternoon, I can confirm it is possible to get a good indirect look at the Venus transit. Also KEET (13-4) has nice views for the uber lazy or incapacitated. We used a pin hole through a piece of cardboard for the eclipse, but figured the image cast (on a piece of white) would be too small to see little Venus.
So we used one side of a pair of binoculars and, from a standing position had a sun image about the size of a tangerine hitting the white paper we placed on the ground. Venus was clearly visible as a small but obvious black spot.
It’s a little tricky lining it up right (and be sure you have the large lens of the binocs pointing toward the Sun) but it was well worth the effort. I think we’ll be able to see it for several hours yet.
One website suggested mounting the binocs to something for stability. But then they gave the caveat that the glass could get too hot and explode. Probably unlikely, but you’re warned.
From Norman Solomon’s campaign:
If “tens of thousands” are yet to be counted, no wonder the SoS office labeled this a close contest.
Huh!
US Navy attacked in Persian Gulf http://www.goldcoastchronicle.com/politics/breaking-news-a-major-attack-on-us-naval-forces-in-the-straits-of-hormus/
BF, the source for that story, Stand Up America, seems pretty militiaesque to me. The first comment to your link says:
May want to see someone more mainstream like aljazeera pick this up before running down to enlist. ;-)
Council Member Marian Brady was on News Channel 3 last night talking about the “issue” of the Gazebo. She said the City is just trying to get a handle on how much it costs to maintain it. She says no one is talking about tearing it down – yet.
This is a fascinating article on the obesity epidemic and why it has happened. I’d be really curious to hear what our libertarian friends have to propose in response.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat
What are the details about Fox Farm Fertilizer selling to Scott’s Fertilizer for 130 million dollars? How come this hasn’t made the news yet? Willy Winer, the previous owner, has moved to Arizona and bought a multimillion dollar house. Will Fox Farm moves its operation?
Only 0.4% separates Solomon and Roberts with thousands of votes still to be counted.
If anyone is still following the “close race” between Roberts and Solomon for second place in the 2nd district, according to the state and county websites there are about 57000 votes still uncounted as of 6/15. If one apportions them to each candidate by county at the % that they had in the completed count, Roberts would pick up about 8285 votes and Solomon about 8767. This would leave Solomon behind by 759 votes, if my estimates are correct. Solomon led in the three most highly populated counties but was way behind up here in the north–Roberts took 18.51%, 22.56% and 26.75% in Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte respectively, versus 11.69%, 8.55% and 4.38% for Solomon in those counties.
So is it total anarchy here? Should the Herald and its contributors take any responsibility for moderating comments? You need to ban people who are saying things like:
“Go fucking die somewhere already, shithead.”
DA employee acquitted in DUI case
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_20888728/da-employee-acquitted-dui-case?source=most_viewed
Ah Walmart:
Sleeping in public is now a misdemeanor in Eureka,although this us not aimed at the homeless. Voted through 4-1
On a side note Cirabellini dissented from the vote to allow beekeeping permits in Eureka due to “loose wording”… passed 4-1
This council is completely nucking futs
“Across the entire district, the Chronicle noted, Roberts is now just 757 votes ahead — and the estimated more than 9,000 ballots that remain to be counted are all in Sonoma County, where I did very well on Election Day.” Norm Solomon today.
How policy has contributed to the great economic divide
Joseph Stiglitz
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-policy-has-contributed-to-the-great-economic-divide/2012/06/22/gJQAXTX2vV_story.html?hpid=z2
A TIMES-STANDARD EDITORIAL
Wrong move, Eureka
Earlier this week, the Eureka City Council, in a 4 1 vote, made drinking in public and sleeping in public misdemeanor offenses. City Attorney Cyndy Day-Wilson said the move is designed to clear up a conflict within the city code, which previously classified any violations as misdemeanors while listing sleeping or drinking in public as infractions.
We think it’s pretty clear who the city council’s move is aimed at. MTV’s “Spring Break” hasn’t been filming on the steps of the Humboldt County Courthouse. Tuesday’s vote was a direct shot at Occupy Eureka protesters and homeless who have become courthouse fixtures — and, we argue, a shot the council didn’t need to take.
Criminalizing homelessness won’t save the city of Eureka any money. At a time when the Humboldt County DA’s Office has warned local officials that it may drop most misdemeanor prosecutions unless it’s granted some measure of budgetary mercy from the county Board of Supervisors, any prosecutions resulting from Tuesday’s vote would likely be left to the city of Eureka.
Issuing citations to those least likely to be able to pay is a questionable enough proposition. Slapping them with misdemeanor charges can only snowball into a procedural mess for the city as court dates are missed and resultant charges pile up, further straining the resources of the public defender’s office and the jail.
How much is this gesture going to cost the city of Eureka?
Wouldn’t municipal resources be much better employed trying to fix other problems? Whatever money the city ends up spending as a result of Tuesday’s misstep would be better spent on alternative solutions — say, further funding for Problem Oriented Policing — or dealing with alternative problems.
(Eureka’s nasty meth habit comes to mind.) Once again, officials seem intent on creating a bigger problem than the one they’re out to solve.
It’s time to think differently.
GM grass suddenly starts producing cyanide and kills the cows eating it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57459357/gm-grass-linked-to-texas-cattle-deaths/
Obama: Supreme Court ruling on health care a victory for all Americans
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/28/politics/supreme-court-health-ruling/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Presenting an episode of Fake Humboldt:
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_20988677/hgtv-features-humboldt-house-hunters?source=most_viewed
http://www.avclub.com/articles/hgtvs-totally-fake-house-hunters-is-still-totally,81121/
Whatever happened to “Plain Jane?” I just realized that I haven’t seen a comment from her in a long while. Hope she’s O.K.!
She’s still around posting once in a while, but anonymously to avoid the leg humping trolls smearing people who are not PJ with her views..
If a big quake hits, and your location at the time makes you want to go from up on Pine Hill, down Meyers and across the Martin Slough over to Elk River Road (or the same trip in reverse) you may want to think twice.
Click here to see bridge to not be on in an earthquake.
That bridge has some of the funkiest stats in the Humbay area. 7 is a good score. 4 or 5 are not.
Of course the Republicans could stop trying to run the economy into the ground for the election with their delaying funding the kind of construction projects that would repair that bridge, create work and possibly save lives, but we know that won’t happen. Their hatred of Obama and America is that great. And everyday people still watch FOX News seriously, follow Rush, and vote for these traitorous bastards. The power of Big Media I guess.
Workingman’s Constitution
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/workingmans-constitution/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20120706
“Romney beats Obama by $35m in June fundraising”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18773746
Romney invested millions in a firm dedicated to outsourcing US jobs:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/bain-capital-mitt-romney-outsourcing-china-global-tech
Do you ever take the time to imagine what this country would be if right wing ideologues were able to achieve their dreams? A third world nightmare where a few have it all and the many beg for scraps of jobs and have no opportunity (education, health or civil rights) to improve their lot other than crime or joining the military.
Good find, Mitch.
“Mr. W. Mitt Romney is the sole shareholder, sole director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brookside Inc. and thus is the controlling person of Brookside Inc.”
“At the time Romney was acquiring shares in Global-Tech, the firm publicly acknowledged that its strategy was to profit from prominent US companies outsourcing production abroad. ”
How do the Romney supporters explain his blatant and repeated lies that he was not involved in outsourcing American jobs to China?
If there is, by chance, any believer in “bank ethics” still out there, this is a must read: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/business/goldman-sachs-and-a-sale-gone-horribly-awry.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120715
In a nutshell, for $5 million in fees, Goldman Sachs told the founders of a small business to sell to a company that GS had previously declined to invest in; the business was cooking its books. They lost everything.
Betsy Lambert’s KIEM contract was not renewed so we’ll probably never know who pooped and peed on the bank.
Bad news for Humboldt’s cargo cult: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports-projects-20120720,0,3659702.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+%28L.A.+Times+-+Business%29
We’re number sixteen.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/20/1111964/-US-Trails-at-Least-15-OECD-Countries-in-Median-Wealth
“(CNN) — The man suspected of shooting up an Aurora, Colorado movie theater screening the new Batman film early Friday, killing 12 and wounding 59, also left his apartment rigged with traps, police said….FBI spokesman Jason Pack said it did not appear the incident was related to terrorism.”
White American butchers aren’t terrorists?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Terrorism is violent means to achieve a political objective. It’s possible to be a nutcase seeking infamy without a political agenda. .
Thanks PJ. A perfect example of “don’t believe everything you think.” Willing to re-think.
He may turn out to be a terrorist for who knows what cause, but I appreciate them not jumping to unsupported conclusions.
What sort of bloggers are you people?! Thanks? Appreciate?
All the certitude I read and hear causes me to want to continue to ask questions and keep an open mind to new ideas and new solutions for new problems. Perhaps even new solutions for really old problems.
Kudos to John McCain for having the integrity to condemn Bachmann for her bigoted and baseless smear of HUma Abedin. What a vile POS she is.
Did anyone feel this?
PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
MAGNITUDE – 5.2
TIME – 1752 AKDT JUL 20 2012
1852 PDT JUL 20 2012
0152 UTC JUL 21 2012
LOCATION – 40.5 NORTH 125.1 WEST
55 MILES/89 KM SW OF EUREKA CALIFORNIA
235 MILES/378 KM NW OF SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA
DEPTH – 8 MILES/13 KM
I didn’t.
Transparent solar cells for use in windows, high volume, low cost manufacturing: http://www1.cnsi.ucla.edu/news/item?item_id=2072164
Excellent article about the effects of Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalism on human beings:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/bain-capital-layoffs-dade-behring_n_1695960.html
Thanks for not asking for opinions about your new format.
What’s even more demoralizing, Mitch, is that almost half of the voters in this country want to put him in charge of the whole country. What Bain did for the companies and pension plans he looted into bankruptcy he will do for this country. A man who manipulated his investments to extract the most personal profit without the slightest regard for it’s impact on anyone else, including his country, would have no scruples about looting our national resources and allowing the destruction of the environment for private profit.
PJ,
You’re missing the point. Just look at that hair!
Interesting perspective on current banking structure:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/mega-bank-creator-sandy-weill-reverses-course-says-153653712.html
“TARP Was Even Worse Than You Think: “An Abysmal Failure,” Barofsky Says
Officials in both the Bush and Obama administrations took the attitude “bankers know best,” Barofsky recalls. “It was somewhat shocking how much control big banks had over their own bailout [and] the overwhelming deference show by Treasury officials to the banks.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tarp-even-worse-think-abysmal-failure-barofsky-says-161743679.html
The 460′s are at County Elections but they want 10 cents a page for copies. Will someone please get down there and take some notes? The supervisor’s races must have set records.
Two post in eight days? I know you don’t create the news but this seems a little slow. And Heraldo, Where’s Heraldo?
It’s a good question but I don’t have an answer. I think you are seeing evidence that Heraldo has/have a life outside the blogosphere. I could post on another national outrage — the pool is more or less unlimited — but the Herald is really supposed to have a local focus, so I’m hesitant. Anyone who has local news they’d like to spread is welcome to put it here, and if I think it makes sense to put it on the front page, I’ll do so.
Putting Romney’s tax plan on the table collapses the table with debt unless he slashes social programs by half and raises taxes on the middle class.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/04/romney-tax-plan-on-table-debt-collapses-table/?hpid=z1
This was from a BBC commentator in a story about negative comments by the Governor of the Bank of England: “. . . [W]e had the – by now predictable – admission of defeat at the hands of the crisis. The governor told us, again and again, that the Bank had no idea what would happen to the economy in the next year or so, or the eurozone – anyone who could accurately forecast that, he said, deserved a medal.
His economic deputy, Charlie Bean, also told us, in no uncertain terms, that the employment data had also left the Bank entirely flummoxed. “It’s a genuine economic puzzle that we simply do not understand,” he said. ”
The Brits, the Right will argue, are a bunch of surrender monkeys, but it’s becoming clear that Geithner and Bernanke, and of course Mitt and Barack, don’t have a clue about where we’re headed either. Maybe stuffing our mattresses with Reichsmarks. . .er, dollars. . .wouldn’t be a bad idea.
There was a direct action at the Sierra Pacific sawmill in Manila on Monday, Earth First!ers blocked the log truck entrance and went into the office asking to speak to someone in charge. see http://efhumboldt.org
Not being picked up by the mainstream media.
Something that wasn’t in the press release but should have been- A truck driver pushed about 5 ft into the group before he stopped.
I’ve sure been getting a lot of earthquake e-mails from NWS-WCATWC. Don’t know if I should be relieved that there are lots of small quakes reducing stress or worried that these are precursors to the BIG ONE.
Great COSTCO story on the SF Chronicle site SFGATE, what a success story for an American Company.
Something you might find of interest- tarsandsblockade.org
Investigative reporter Fred Mangels with a fascinating first hand account of Murl Harpham rigging a police employment exam: http://t.co/SF2F94QO
Is this the most corrupt little town in California or what?
I can’t believe no story here on the whole police chief debacle.
How much more city finds have Tyson and crew wasted on this one?
No councilmember will speak on the closed session except the inept Newwwwwman?
Merle the pearl releases more classic quotes like “I’m a soldier,I just do as I’m told” and “I might retire,Imight not depends on who they hire” which translates to, “if they see things my way or if I need to chase them out of town like the last guy”
Basically it seems like the guy they wanted(local) passed,they had a couple other candidates to make the process appear fair but would never give the job to an “outsider” again. So now they need MORE time to groom their chosen golden boy on how to pass the interviews,say the right things to community members and continue the cycle of corrupt,hostile policing.
No 80 year old has any business being a hired police officer in today’s world,I guarantee he is so far removed from normal modern living and out of touch with 97.5% of people alive today.
This town is an embarrassment and a bad joke due to this crew of “soldiers”
Murl is a hip cat. He recently requested 2 license place readers. Now we’ll be part of the Eye Spy network. You know, where the government keeps track of US, just to keep US safe from OURSELVES. Don’t believe me? Ask the ACLU.
One term more…
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/47044797 w=400&h=300]
One term more…
I love live tv and the internet:
h/t to CLrantsnraves and alcohol.
Is he drunk? Or is his normal way of speaking? Is this a joke? UNBELIEVABLE !!!!
Needless to say, the important Romney news is discovered and reported by Gawker rather than the so-called “responsible media.” The responsible media is otherwise occupied with more important things, like the latest poll.s
http://gawker.com/5936873
Worth reading:
http://jezebel.com/5937092/mitt-romneys-wonder-dong-should-be-chieftan-of-america
Supervisor-elect Fennell received a “shaded parcel” letter from the county, which means she’s built on an unapproved lot without permits. This puts Estelle in a conflict-of-interest situation. She won’t be able to vote on shaded parcels, or amnesty or anything else involving the illegal building in rural Humboldt. Anyone who voted for her because of illegal land use:
too bad.
What’s wrong with the Tea Party in 6 minutes from “The Newsroom”
What a weird, refreshing bit of lib-porn that was, PJ!
They make it an entertainment show by using all those cutaways to tech people who seem handsome and pretty in unlikely quantity, huh? I kept waiting for someone to pull the plug, but I guess the tech people are there to ooze emotional approval?
I watch this show. The tech people characters helped in coming up with all the talking points in his broadcast.
MINIMUM WAGE FACTOID: The Gasoline Index
In 1968 an hour’s pay at minimum wage ( $1.60) would buy almost 5 gallons of gasoline (@ $0.33/ gal.) but today in Eureka an hour’s minimum wage ($8.00) will buy a little less than 2 gallons of gasoline (@ $4.37 per gallon.)
http://eurekafairwageact.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/minimum-wage-factoid-the-gasoline-index/
w3hat is hazing and why hasnt been eliminated sincec time began
T-S Thursday $891,000 for a Yurok Tribe Cultural and Knowledge Park for tribal families. There is no money for this foolishness, the federal government is out of control, every day another story about waste, fraud, and stupid spending. It’s got to stop or the future of our country is belak.
Bootstraps! We don’t need no stinkin Cultural park. What we need is a Super Wal*Mart (low prices, Always!)
Also the indian houses in Klamath are being painted to get ready for the new park. How many of the posters on this blog get the federal government to paint their houses? More money spent that does not exist. BTW thats a bleak future. Whoops.
Why don’t you sttoopid bloggers buy your paint at Wal*Mart? (low prices Alwayz!)
Archbishop and Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu says war criminals like George W Bush should be tried for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/02/desmond-tutu-tony-blair-iraq
Also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/02/tony-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Founder of Unification Church, Dies at 92
Robert Parry’s investigative work on Moon
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon.html
Normally I wouldn’t play on this sort of politics, claiming non-aligned life and practice, but I stumbled across the following, and between the lines of persiflage, found a chilling outline of what may be the central contemporary Republican line. Maybe you want to work with it.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/28/leading_from_the_front?page=full
As far as I can tell, it goes this way:
1. (not stated directly) Western economies starting with the US and Europe are a zone that is down, and they as ever have no idea how to bring it up so that there are jobs, rising expectations, etc.. Thus written off except for what you can sell in this perhaps ~1 billion population sector.
2. The Great Game is still on. Require new trade agreements (like NAFTA?) with East Asia and any others like Africa if they come on line. Continue to export jobs into this ~5 billion population sector without any sensible limit. Corporations to thrive on jobs and sales with those people who they know aspire towards the things they understand how to make from the past, without substantial change or innovation or ecological-effects consciousness.
3. Require then an advancing military capability and presence, to keep things safe for this involvement, and because ‘other nations are asking for America’.
4. (also not stated directly) Keep up pressure to break down Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and other social services, as means to pay the bills, as well as cement the corporate position.
It actually pains me to write this, because of all the subtleties crushed in it. Of course some ‘other nations are asking for America’, just to start. How and for what purposes covers s spectrum from the very honorable to, well, we know what to. The point is to make distinctions, and endeavor to act honorably and with wisdom. And so for any other activities to be undertaken.
In such a way, I think the military part isn’t the core, though it may be so in John McCain’s most natural thinking. You don’t even get to there if you don’t intend to go out and contest for people’s affairs against their own rising enterprise. Which I suspect these days is in many regards quite capable of taking care of itself, hence that the first world corps are in for some big surprises.
The missing link seems to me to be a constructive sense for limitation. ‘The West’ can’t possibly shed enough jobs to fulfill the aspirations of countries with five times the total population: we have to set limits so that laissez-faire doesn’t lower everyone’s standard of living, including theirs again, by trying to simple-mindedly equilbrate it.
It is a great paradox that the answer to what many of us were attempting to help in the past of conditions in less-industrially-developed countries has turned out to be a degree of letting the free enterprise idea follow its unexamined instincts. Something to be learned there. But to not regulate it…surely a recipe for reaping the whirlwind, and these days the storms reach out to touch everybody.
In other words, I think McCain’s speech is a watershed in showing why regulation and a sense of fair sharing really must be returned to with full confidence now. It could furnish a very interesting world to build in, among its possibilities.
Well, and look: what I wrote above has in it tinges of my own resistance to the narrow idea that business has come to subscribe to – observed at very close distance, I am afraid.
In truth, what I said about buying and selling to the larger world would not be without innovation and improvement of kinds. It is simply that business only feels confident to do this where they can think they will be guaranteed a large profit, and little ‘interference’ so that any flexibility can be used to gain on what they consider their responsibility.
That responsibility being directed solely to a financial achievement is where the whole thing has broken down.
The complex ecology that we are always within can work for only when all types and members are included. The role of enterprise in building life standards from a turning point of scientific and industrial revolution is undeniably and utterly huge. Any sense of the future means we need to improve this, not eliminate it.
But to do that, you have to be intent on being fair, and humane is included in fair. Regulation of the enterprise and fiscal activity is like regulation of any other: just good sense to anyone who is adult, and who reckons what we clearly are as human beings, each individual a complex ecology full of tendencies, and always promise.
Please don’t go for the thoughts above without including this part of them, thanks.
Just saw 2016: Obama’s America, great film everybody should see it.
Critical thinking obviously eludes you, HUUFC.
This is a HUGE issue for all of Northern California.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_21502568/supes-discuss-states-new-water-tunnel-project-trinity
HiFi and his ideological brethren can no longer whine about Democrats blaming Bush since the GOP and Michael Gerson are now blaming Bush for Romney’s coming loss. They won’t admit that Romney’s policies are Bush policies on steroids, of course, because they favor them and refuse to acknowledge that they are the same and were an abject failure; but the people with IQ’s above room temp remember what Bush did and recognize Romney is doubling down on that stupidity.
Ryan has started running ads and actively campaigning for his house seat. If there’s a god he’ll lose both elections.
Which straw will be the last?
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/house-gop-bill-end-welfare-reform-work-requirent.php
Here’s what Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall had to say:
2016 was well done and very interesting. Oh and fuck you what now, just another mouthy libtard.
Frightwingers are the natural prey of snakeoil salesmen and corrupt politicians because they lack critical thinking skills and can’t read well enough to do any research.
Teapublicans are the natural prey of snakeoil salesmen and corrupt politicians because they lack critical thinking skills and can’t read well enough to do any research. Even Stanley Fish, NYT columnist and personal friend of D’Souza panned it.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/obama-dsouza-and-anti-colonialism/
Didn’t mean to post that first one as anonymous or incomplete. My apologies.
It’s okay ‘Plain Jane’, nobody’s listening to you anyways.
Cool Chick is so cool that she speaks for nobody.
Oops:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/rick-santorum-says-smart-people-will-never-be-on
With friends like Rick…
. . . [T}here is no basic values of America.”
–R. Santorum
I think I’ll stay dead.
This is one more example to reenforce the view that a “political gaffe” is really a politician speaking the truth.
The Democratic Party is actually trying to register voters in Stockton! Too bad they can’t get it done here.
Get Paid to Register Democratic Voters (Stockton )
——————————————————————————–
Date: 2012-09-05, 12:59PM PDT
Reply to this post d2xtm-3252304269@comm.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
——————————————————————————–
Democratic Voter Registration and Education Program is hiring precinct walkers to go door-to-door registering Democrats to vote. Make money and make a big difference. Position starts at $13 an hour. Paid weekly, training provided, family atmosphere. Hours are mostly weekday evenings and weekends. Must have political commitment, reliable vehicle (must be yours and must be willing to use it for the position) and must be very motivated. If this sounds like you, reply with resume, a number that you can be reached at and why you are interested in the position. Interviews are being held now.
CAPLETON ALERT: My Google Alert system gave me this information tonight:
Capleton @ The Red Fox Tavern – October 11th 2012 10:00 pm
at The Red Fox Tavern. 415 Fifths Street. Eureka CA. 7072690282. View Website | Other Events at The Red Fox Tavern. October 11, 2012 10:00 pm – 2:00 am …
holdmyticket.com/event/122267
Possibly Stephen Colbert’s best work ever… you really want to see the video at the bottom of this link:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/colbert-romney-47-percent.php
From the Lost Coast story, it looks like Trevor Bohn is in serious trouble.
That was really good, Mitch. But I don’t think he’ll ever best his performance at the 2006 White House Correspondence Dinner.
Rex Bohn’s son arrested?
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_21586874/four-arrested-alleged-fortuna-assault-pepper-spray
Yes it is. Head on over to the Lost Coast Output to discuss it.
Australia’s treasurer: “Let’s be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican party,”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/21/wayne-swan-republicans-cranks-crazies
And Mitt Romney’s mom talking about how her dad was on welfare:
Triple schmuck points to Romney for pulling up the ladder behind him.
California unemployment rate is 10.6% FYI all you obummer supporters.
Republicans vote down or don’t allow any jobs bills to come to a vote, Huffy. If you’re upset maybe you should get on their asses and stop blaming the president who is doing everything he can despite their obstruction.
Obummer’s jobs bill was purposely loaded with tax increases and pork to make it fail in the House. Dirty Harry will not allow any votes in the Senate to enable obummer to use his congress doesn’t do anything line. Anyways how is the federal government creating jobs? By giving money to the states? Money that is printed from thin air? Jobs need to come from the private sector.
Huffy, you are so confused. The govt. can’t do anything to create jobs but it’s all Obama’s fault. The world is a very scary place for you, isn’t it?
Another kind of science…check out the list towards the bottom, starting with the photo of the guys leaning…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19667664
The Senate adjourned Saturday and will return to Washington on November 13, one week after the election is over. The Congress has had eight legislative work days on the floor of the House and Senate in the last 14 weeks. Nice work if you can get it.
Congress has voted 33 times on abortion legislation and once to reassert the currency’s motto.GOP pandering to the brownshirt “Teavangelicals”.
Did Lost Coast Outpost kill Heraldo?
Request for Proposals
Westside Community Improvement Association is Requesting Proposals from programs interested in operating at the Jefferson Site.
Proposals are sought from Charter schools – We have 6 classrooms available for primary occupancy by a charter school and 4 potentially shared classrooms.
We are also seeking proposals from organizations and programs that offer recreation, art, performing arts, cultural enrichment, after school programs, nursery schools, health, nutrition, physical fitness, literacy, and other community resources.
The Jefferson Campus is proposed to house a Charter School in the South Building and by fall of 2014 (if not sooner) all space in the South building will be dedicated to that purpose. We are seeking proposals from Charter Schools that will recruit students from our community and offer free quality education to the children of the Westside, elementary schools preferred.
The North Building will house a Community Recreation and Cultural Enrichment Center. Programs in the North Building are expected to share space in order to maximize the benefit to the community and minimize the cost to operate programs here. We are also proposing the development or renovation of 2 more spaces outside the North Building.
There will also be a public park available for outdoor recreation programs, a neighborhood events center with a stage, and a permitted kitchen. Programs are expected to offer free opportunities to children and families that live within ½ a mile of the Jefferson Project. We welcome proposals from organizations serving all ages.
The proposed timeline for completion of the improvements at the facility is September 2014, but parts of the facility will be ready much sooner.
Please include financials with proposals and mail by October 15th, 2012 to:
Westside Community Improvement Association
PO Box 5315
Eureka, CA 95502
Questions can be directed to
Heidi Benzonelli
lets.buy.jefferson@gmail.com
(707) 498-5764
Have we been having lots of little earthquakes this morning?
A truly remarkable story about someone catching their internet abuser:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/26/day-confronted-troll
News from the crusade against sex offenders, British division:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/09/28/the-blackberry-typo-that-landed-a-man-in-jail/
“Agent of the holy spirit” (Mr. Ratzinger’s butler) on trial by Vatican for pointing out high-level corruption, nepotism, and cronyism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/29/pope-butler-trial-leaked-documents
Let’s live-blog the Eureka City Council debate tonight, eh? 7 p.m. TV13.
I don’t get TV, but have at it.
Go ahead, Bananas.
Post it over on the Arkley fan club website.
Let’s do it here. Make up a name and like Mitch sez: have at it.
First off, no more snide nicknames like “Bohnino”. It doesn’t fool anyone anyway.
Tonight’s candidates are Joe Bonino, long-time treasurer of the Humboldt Republican Party and Eureka City Councilmember Linda Atkins, the Humboldt Democratic Party’s Chairperson. City Council is a non-demonimational non-partisan office, so I guess none of that will matter, right?
Nice slide of Trinidad harbor…an American flag waving over a collage of Humboldt landmarks…445-0811…it’s Byrd Lochtie! She sez it’s on KHSU, too,
LWV is blah-blah-blah…she’s good. Seems to really want lots of calls. Each candidate gets one minute to open and one minute to answer questions…unless she allows more. I wouldn’t mess with her. Call with your questions.
Charlie Bean sez he’s local, been gone and is back again with a lot to provide. Charlie’s the qualified write-in candidate. Been around. Could speak more clearly…
Joe Bonino pledges all to cops and fire, the Marina Center and being a strong financial watchdog.
Incumbent Linda Atkins takes credit for good stuff she has done then talks about getting the PD and the people “all pulling together” to “get it done”.
Thanks for giving it a try, Moderator.
There was more, Mitch – I think I got moderated. Check the spam filter.
I can’t find anything, sorry. This is getting annoying.
Poll: Do Humboldt County’s IHSS Workers Deserve a Raise?
http://eurekafairwageact.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/poll-do-humboldt-countys-ihss-workers-deserve-a-raise/
or take it at polldaddy:
http://poll.fm/3wz0i
Where is the fire?
The Stanford Study (of studies) comparing the nutrition of organic v conventional food was seriously flawed:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/that-flawed-stanford-study/?ref=opinion
For people who like journalism that offers objective numbers, the Guardian comes up with hard-to-beat pieces every now and again. They’ve just done up info on the US Federal Debt, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/15/us-debt-how-big-who-owns
There are still journalists — you just have to look harder than you’d hope.
More from the Guardian, this time about the torture of Palestinians:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/03/hamas-torture-detainees-gaza
The debt in the United States will crush our way of life and the world. If obummer is re-elected can anyone point to anything he has done to control the deficit spending at the federal level? Over one trillion dollars each year he has been in office in four more years the debt will be over 20 trillion.
Also not suprising to see things in the muslim world in Gaza are par for the course.
I hate the president cuz he a Taliban from Kenya or Gaza. Vote for Bonino to create jobs in America.
Friends Neighbors and Community Partners,
Westside Community Improvement Association Pays off Jefferson School , Hosts the Heritage Society and is Awarded a CalFresh grant for Kitchen Equipment!
In 14 months, WCIA has paid off the mortgage on Jefferson School!!! I think we are all still reeling! I am so grateful for the people who voted to pass the Proposition 84 Clean Water and Parks bond in 2006.
A little over a year ago, Bill Rodstrom Sr. Planner with Redwood Community Action Agency forwarded me a link to a grant and said, “Hey, this might work for Jefferson”. When I read the Notice of Funding Availability for the Parklands and Community Revitalization Program it sounded like it was written just for us! 6 weeks later we submitted a proposal and now, WOW!!! It is such a relief to pay off the property and it really will help us keep space affordable for programs that wish to operate at the site.
Also this Sunday October 7th we are hosting the Heritage Society Home Tour. Access Humboldt will also be on site to record stories and memories of Jefferson. The Heritage Society will be serving refreshments at the school and we will be open for a tour.
We have also been awarded a CalFresh Grant through Humboldt County Health and Human Services to help us get some up dated kitchen equipment and get our kitchen up and running. Anyone with any connections to people with used commercial restaurant equipment (pots pans, utensils) please let us know (message us through FaceBook or email or call).
We have also had over 700 volunteers serve at our site this year, over $130,000 in cash donations, donations of services, materials, expertise, suggestions, prayers. You name it, our community has come forward overwhelmingly to support this effort.
Thank you everyone!! And come check us out at the Heritage Society Tour Sunday and tell your Jefferson Story!!!
Heidi Benzonelli, President
Westside Community Improvement Association
OK, I can’t bring myself to put this BRILLIANT video cartoon on the front page. But if you thought “Instruction Book for Life” was too sappy, this is a bracing alternative look at tolerance through history. It features Andy Williams singing. Thanks, Suzanne.
Caution: graphic, like South Park
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/
Excellent, Mitch!
I’ll let you find out for yourself who he is… but I’ll give you a hint. He sits on a science committee.
Today’s T-S has a front page article from the anti USA group Amnesty International about the just awful conditions for convicts at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City. While I understand that AI and the T-S just don’t like the United States and they are free to print whatever they want, why isn’t the article on the internet so we can comment on the biased reporting?
Correction, the T-S published the article on Monday the eighth on the internet and on the front page of the paper on the tenth. It is avalible under the local news tab. It is still crap though.
yeah, americans be evil people, we need to lock up lots of americans. vote yes for more prisun gards and shop at wal*mart for low prices always
Earth is doomed!! God is going to wipe the surface of the world clean
and start over! He likes the idea of the Mayan date of destruction.
December 21 2012! Man has been warned—but doesn’t listen!
Meet Humboldt astronomers Ravi Najir and Sam Klein-two
Humboldt doctoral students PHD grunts about to save the world!
Winning a slot on the Hubble Space Telescope—Najir and Klein become
the first astronomers to observe an explosive cosmic event in the
heavens. Where the Crab Nebula used to be—God has
formed a new planet and sun. On a whim, the boys
name their discovery the Master Kush Formation.
Fame and fortune follow and the two find themselves in a
high-roller suite in Las Vegas. Learning Earth’s fate for the first time
while engaged in a game of Texas Hold-em at the Luxor, the
academics are engaged to save the world by none other than four unlikely
agents of God. Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and Buddha. All come to
Earth—and all serious, hard-betting card sharks.
In a fast paced run around history, the globe , space and
Las Vegas, the students make it all happen! Join them as they
travel at high speed across time, the internet, the oceans and space.
Fun to read, serious at times–always entertaining, God Shuffles will
challenge the reader to think while promoting a chuckle.
Have Fun!!!
Another muslim stung by the FBI, the bomb was inert material and the building was the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan, New york City. He was only “quazi mohammand”, not “full mohammand”.
From AP:
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court in Manhattan has become the second in the nation to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling Thursday. The decision upholds a lower court judge who ruled that the 1996 law that defines marriage as involving a man and a woman was unconstitutional.
The three-judge panel says the law violates equal protection. A federal appeals court in Boston earlier this year also found it unconstitutional.
The issue is expected to be decided by the Supreme Court.
What was up with that prolonged siren in the south bay area?
Here’s the second circuit’s ruling striking down DOMA as unconstitutional — apparently one of the two justices in the majority is an extreme conservative. Good for him!
http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/1afe4f62-fbf9-4e0d-a409-26ab7396971e/1/doc/12-2335_complete_opn.pdf
The question was, why should the widow in a marriage performed in Canada have to pay estate taxes on the inheritance left her by her spouse, just because her spouse was a woman? The court’s answer: no valid reason, stop the discriminatory practice.
The second court’s ruling is crisp, no-nonsense, step-by-step and let’s get this over with; in a word, it is “awesome.”
Here’s my favorite paragraph:
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/FlyingSquirrels.html#FlyingSquirrel012 :
Why Everyone is Moving from New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles to Chico, Cloverdale, and PetalumaAnne Rice, talking to Maureen Dowd (“She’s Fit to be Tied,” The New York Times, March 31, 2012):
“Very few people act out their fantasies, except in Northern California.”
by the way, Eric, anything I may put here is for you also, with a nod, as don’t know another way for the Sohum.
Found this delightful gift this morning via Kurzweil’s weekly mailing:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399589_479857292035287_1394278919_n.jpg
Memo from Americorp, Tech Fix Division, Dept of Clean, Safe, Too Cheap to Meter:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/fukushima-fish-still-radioactive
BULLETIN
PUBLIC TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 6
NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK
1044 PM PDT SAT OCT 27 2012
THE ADVISORY HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO INCLUDE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND
SOUTHERN OREGON.
…THE TSUNAMI WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL
AREAS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA FROM THE NORTH TIP OF
VANCOUVER ISLAND BRITISH COLUMBIA TO CAPE DECISION
ALASKA/LOCATED 85 MILES SE OF SITKA/…
…THE TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS MODIFIED TO INCLUDE THE COASTAL
AREAS OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM GUALALA POINT
CALIFORNIA/LOCATED 80 MILES NW OF SAN FRANCISCO/ TO
DOUGLAS-LANE COUNTY LINE OREGON/10 MILES SW OF FLORENCE/…
A 7.7-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada late Saturday, triggering a tsunami warning as far as Hawaii.
One man tries to bypass governments:
You think Eureka politics is dirty? Palomar College District election for perspective.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/29/candidate-calls-sex-doll-claims-inflated/
Wet and Cold Winter Storms Coming to Humboldt County!
Let us remember the men, the women and the children, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters who are huddled under a bush shivering in the rain.
Please join me in contacting Eureka Mayor Frank Jager and requesting that he use the emergency powers vested in him to open an emergency shelter in a city facility for our homeless during this rainy period, and during the rainy periods to come this winter.
Mayor’s Office: (707) 441-4200
Mayor Jager Email: fjager@ci.eureka.ca.gov
It is the responsibility of our government to care for the vulnerable among us. Until the mid-1980s muncipal facilities in Eureka were routinely opened for humanitarian purposes during bad weather events. What have we become?
please forward this email to anyone who cares!
Thank you,
have a peaceful day,
Bill
For anyone who hasn’t voted yet, and is thinking Yes on 35 (Human Trafficking Penalties) please check out this well-reasoned post against 35:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/11/01/prop-35
I saw way too many “could’s” and “possibly’s” in that article which were then extrapolated into “would’s” and “will’s,” as the case against was built there, 06em. But I’ve already voted in favor after reading a variety of pro and con arguments.
While the election is obviously the big news today, something that could have a really important impact locally is that a collaborative group has been formed which includes both Healthy Humboldt and HumCPR — along with myriad other “stakeholder” groups including the Mattole Restoration Council, the North Coast Home Builders’ Association, Humboldt United Stand, the local Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, the Humboldt Builders’ Exchange, California Center for Rural Policy, the local Complete Streets Working Group and the Humboldt Association of Realtors — and will be working together to help identify areas of broad consensus on the General Plan.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_21937911/county-supes-delay-talk-general-plan-update-new?source=rss
[Just to be clear, although the T-S article makes it sound like Lee Ulansey was speaking on behalf of Healthy Humboldt, a comment in the Facebook comments thread, from Hezekiah of the Mattole Restoration Council clarified that Ulansey of HumCPR was standing alongside Dan Ehresman of Healthy Humboldt and announcing the joint effort, not that Ulansey was acting the spokesman for Healthy Humboldt]
This seems like it could potentially be a very positive development, and one that, although it may slow down the process a bit in the short term, might help the supervisors work toward an outcome that a majority of Humboldt residents can support, at least on most points. The groups made it clear that they do not expect to reach consensus on every single policy option, but hope to both identify areas of agreement, and also improve the dialogue on issues where significant disagreement remains.
Time will tell as to whether this effort will be fruitful in improving that dialogue, but it does seem like this approach may help ensure that as the process moves forward, advocates of different options will at least be talking TO each other, instead of, as often seems to be the case, talking PAST each other. In any event, I applaud these folks for their efforts, and wish them well.
Just made a bad choice for dinner, while waiting for my grease, noticed a crew of dirty tradesmen, just off a job so I asked, where are you guys from? Answer, Reno, outfit named Refco I think. They were all happy and proud, you feel that way after a hard days work, I asked, what are you building? they said, they were doing clean up and demo over at fox farms. I said, how’d you get the job? They said, just gotta know the right people I guess.
Funny how these local businessmen pound their chest jobs jobs jobs but when there actually is an opportunity to put some locals to work.who do they hire? the lowest bidder.
Boycot Fox Farms!
Maybe this will be a kind of fitting end to the GOP campaign against (mythical) voter fraud, as opposed to the all-too-possible election fraud conducted via insiders and unverifiable electronic paperless voting machines.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/republicans_voter_fraud_tests.php?ref=fpb
But, but, but the GOP has been saying for YEARS if you don’t have to show an ID you can vote as many times as you want!
““From what we understand, he was trained by the Republican Party,” Sandoval (Chief of Police) of told TPM.”
If so, everyone involved should be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit election and voter fraud.
Brilliant essay
http://www.ericgarland.co/2012/11/09/letter-to-a-future-republican-strategist-regarding-white-people/
Yeah, that’s pretty good, Jane, and even when I’m feeling one more word about US politics would be like encountering a dull drill at the dentist’s office.
I did notice that he didn’t seem to say anything about the 47%, Maybe just forgotten..!…but satisfaction there is equal first with political not-majorities, and cow-wild-eyed portions of middle classers, no?
Review of Guy Fieri’s new restaurant in New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html
Not good.
I read that this morning. Has to be one of the worst I’ve ever read. Hopefully it was a just a very bad night and they’ll pull it together.
Robert Reich
We’ve got to take back our democracy and our economy. Two specific things you can do today: Join up and participate in Common Cause (whose board I’m proud to chair):
http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactcustom.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8412693
,
And, if you can, help with a film on what’s happened to the American economy and what needs to be done: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/39360185/inequality-for-all-0
What are you, a buncha terrorists?? Shop til you drop, damn you!
Here’s your real Republican Party. Aren’t you proud?
Zeno, get your head out of your ass and into the current century.
Proof that racism is at the core of the modern Republican Party.
Proof you don’t want to think, only insult.
If there is a Republican in this town with enuff ballz to own what Atwater says here lets hear it. I promise I won’t insult you. How about you, Joe Bonino? Do you like what you hear? Will you “walk this talk?”
From the mouth of Atwater, racist dog whistles and how they developed it into an art form. You don’t have to say the “N” word any more and those “with the ear to hear” get the message crystal clear. They’ve been programmed for it for decades.
why does. much water frm the eel go into a tunnel into the russian river–google it!!!
While we have gained some skill sets (multitasking, technological savvy), other skills have suffered: the art of conversation, the art of looking at people, the art of being seen, the art of being present. Our conduct is no longer governed by subtlety, finesse, grace and attention, all qualities more esteemed in earlier decades. Inwardness and narcissism now hold sway………. The simple act of noticing my self-defensive behavior has made me think deeply about how potentially toxic ironic posturing could be.. If life has become merely a an endless series of sarcastic jokes and a competition to see who can care the least it seems we’ve made a collective misstep. Could this be the cause of our emptiness and existential malaise? Or a symptom?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?smid=fb-share
Morons. Atwater died decades ago. The statement you have above, out of context, was made more than 30 years ago.
It’s like trotting out Robert Byrd, who filibustered against the Civil Rights Act in 1964, was for the Vietnam war, and was high up in the KKK organization, as an example of todays democrat party.
C’mon Joe, you been tellin us for months that you “Walk the Talk”. C’ mon Joe grow some balls and defend this race baiting uber Republican Atwater. Maybe atl the walking an talking is just BS. Cmon Joe say it aint so.
Cmon Joe you are the Huimboldt Republican Party Chairman. Grow a pair.
Just a Quick Note inviting folks to take a look at the Humboldt Sentinel.com.
Some of you may not know that we exist, or that we’ve greatly improved the quality, content, and format of the site over the past year. It’s been a labor of love by a few volunteers.
Unfortunately we’ve been blacklisted, chosen not to be linked by the rare few sites (well, actually only two; and they’re ones we like, too!) being the new kid on the block. Nonetheless, knowing we’re #2 and excluded like an ugly stepchild, we try harder.
I hope you’ll give us a look and see the interesting reads we put up fresh every day. We always welcome submissions and comments, too, though it’s not as lively as it is here at the Herald. We’d like your help, contributions, and good humor.
Just sayin’ …and also saying thanks. Many of our readers come from the Herald’s sidebar link bringing us to you.
Please keep us in mind, give us a click, check us out, favorite on Facebook and follow us on Twitter– and take care and have a good Happy Thanksgiving with you and yours.
Something to be thankful for…..
Be thankful you didn’t elect Meg Whitman. She is an incompetent fool.
“In an interview with CNBC, Whitman said she regretted voting to approve the deal with Autonomy, which she charged with trying to divert attention away from the true state of its financials. ”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49900639
You have to at least give her credit for publicly stating her regret for a poor decision.
SNL sketch (unfortunately didn’t air) that makes a good point in defense of Guy Fieri:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/19/watch_snls_guy_fieri_sketch_that_didnt_air/
Group moves ahead on Tehama-to-coast rail plan
By RICH GREENE-Red Bluff Daily News chicoer.com
Posted: 11/21/2012 12:08:48 AM PST
A study to determine the feasibility of creating a rail route connecting Humboldt Bay with the national rail system in Tehama County is moving full steam ahead.
The recently formed UpState RailConnect Committee met for the first time last week with representatives from the city of Eureka, Upstate California Economic Development Council and Humboldt, Trinity and Tehama counties.
The committee discussed a nonprofit organization called the Landbridge Alliance and its role in accepting private donations dedicated to the feasibility study.
The committee agreed the process will remain public regardless of whether funds are from public or private sources.
The city of Eureka had received a $25,000 Community Development Block Grant to assist in the cost of the study.
The study will examine the feasibility of a century-old idea to develop an east-west rail line from Humboldt Bay to Gerber. The original idea was scrapped after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in favor of north-south routes to help rebuild the Bay Area.
Tehama County has been chosen as the eastern connection point because of its connections with both the national rail system and Interstate 5 as well as available land to create a multi-modal terminal.
The county hopes to benefit through job creation and international routes for produce exports. Tehama County has not pledged any monetary support to the plan at this time.
The county has two spots on the committee and is being represented by Supervisor-elect Steve Chamblin and Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin. Eureka Councilman Lance Madsen was appointed chairman of the RailConnect Committee and Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn as vice-chairman.
The committee hopes to conduct public outreach and develop the scope of work for the feasibility study, obtain funding for the study, retain a consultant and if the study is found feasible to identify capital and investors for the project.
06em, that was my immediate take on the review which I only read because it was about Guy Fieri. “You can LeCirque my LeJerk!” was priceless. I’ll bet Guy wishes he’d said it.
Tsunami-proof port? Crescent City?
http://news.yahoo.com/calif-city-building-tsunami-resistant-port-172310630.html
Got an email from my mother-in-law saying some of the “younger” folks at their gathering in Florida are going Black Friday shopping tonight. Am I the only American left who would rather have a root canal than go Black Friday shopping at night? Should I start watching the skies for drones?
Went to “Walmart” to show solidarity with my fellow workers. There was not one worker out front. I guess it just comes down to: “Do I give up the only job available? Or do I attempt to raise the awareness of people who don’t give a damn?”
Looks like the employees appreciate the fact that they have a job. If they are fellow workers Moviedad, does that mean that you work at Walmart??
We all work for “Walmart.”
Walmart employees receive over 2 billion in taxpayer subsidies which are, in effect, a subsidy of Walmart profits. Even those of us who wouldn’t go to Walmart on a bet subsidize their profits. No company that is making a profit should have 80% of their workforce on the taxpayer teat.
PJ…..did you run into Moviedad at the protest? If you’re going to talk the talk, you should walk the walk.
Alleged shoplifter dies after being subdued by Walmart workers
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By Jill Vejnoska
The Black Friday shopping weekend apparently took a tragic turn early Sunday morning when an alleged shoplifter died while being apprehended by employees outside a Lithonia Walmart.
Two associates who helped catch and subdue the suspect before police arrived have been placed on leave; a security officer who police say may have placed the suspected thief in a choke hold, is no longer employed by Walmart.
“No amount of merchandise is worth someone’s life,” Walmart spokesperson Dianna Gee said Sunday in a statement that emphasized that it was early in the investigation into the incident and all the facts were not known yet. “Associates are trained to disengage from situations that would put themselves or others at risk.”
DeKalb police say that the unidentified man took two DVD players from the Walmart at 5401 Fairington Road around 1:30 a.m. The man, who appeared to be middle aged, exited through the front door, but was caught by the employees in the parking lot where a “physical altercation” took place, according to the police report.
When police arrived, they found the employees on top of the man. An officer who handcuffed the suspected shoplifter detected no resistance from him and ordered the employees off. Police found the man to be unresponsive and bleeding from his nose and mouth. Emergency units responded and transported him to DMC-Hillandale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“This is truly a sad situation,” Gee said. “We don’t know all of the facts right now. We’re in the process of working with law enforcement to deterimine all of the facts and cooperating and providing any information we have to assist in the investigation.
The preliminary investigation indicates the victim was placed in a choke hold by the security officer. The cause and manner of death is to be determined by the DeKalb Medical Examiner’s office. A spokesman said no information on the victim would be released until Monday.
The two Walmart associates involved in the incident have been suspended with pay pending the investigation of the outcome, Gee said, adding that, “The security officer involved will no longer be providing services to us.”
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/alleged-shoplifter-dies-after-being-subdued-by-wal/nTFPx/
Ok, Bill, and this human tragedy shows what about Walmart, exactly?
Besides that their representative is as appalled as anyone else would be.
More of the big negative approach from those who deploy it, am afraid.
Guess he should have tapped out.
It shows you the societal end point, the consequences, of a sociopathic predatory capitalist organisation like Walmart. Poor wages, high employee turnover, poor training.
The corporations “duty” is to maiximize profits for shareholders? Corporations are “persons?” When “persons” act SOLELY for their own benefit without regard to other people, we call them SOCIOPATHS.
Notice that the walmart worker was thrown under the bus within hours. No, I am not saying he was justified if he choked someone to death. I am just pointing out the level of loyalty Walmart shows to its employees. No doubt his former loss prevention boss was terminated because of too many losses, so this one was determined to stop the thieves at any cost. Or maybe thats just the level of loss prevention that $9.00 an hour gets you. It’s like Mad Max but for minimum wage.
Of course if the Republicans get their way, the cops and firemen and nurses and teachers will be making $9.00 an hour too. Everything will be so much cheaper and better for the poor people.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Bill, I’m no friend of Wal-Mart, at least in the latter day data-crunching behemoth version, though I do remember the friendly little stores in very out-back and not much served areas of Wyoming which they once were..
However, from its beginning, most you write here is either presumption of situations neither of us have facts about, slanted against; or plain old boilerplate, capitals included, which is not worth going into because it is far too simplistic.
None of this is the least bit fair, and coating it in the presumed depredations on ‘working people’ doesn’t make it so.
‘Endpoints’ are like the medical tests that feed lab rats tremendous overdoses and then call cancer or other upset. Ecologies, if you understand them, shift and adjust long before endpoints, or they die out. What we call political economy is one (or a number) of those.
I think we would want to be fair, and also effective. That takes as far as I know depth and specific detail, because those are the only places you are going to find new avenues.
All I want to say on the matter for now, except the two concepts: fair, and new avenues.
Good day to you also, Bill. I seem to remember that beyond our decades-ago innocence, ‘peace’ is one more of those things very ideological people insisted they identified with. How that could be true, quite dangerous territory. You don’t have to agree..
America is a paradise for some of us. It could be a paradise for all of us if huge employers like Walmart shared the profits with its workers. If companies felt responsible to their communities and put US jobs first. If greed became a sin and creating wealth for all a virtue..
Oh well, one can dream.
The nation is facing the fiscal cliff, the debt limit of $16.5 trillion is a few weeks away. Where is Presidential leadership? He is still spouting class warfare. Does he want the country to collapse?
“Oh well, one can dream.”
All the weary mothers of the earth shall finally rest,
We shall take their babies in their arms and do our best.
When the sun is low upon the field
To love and music they will yield,
And the weary mothers of the earth shall rest.
And the farmer on his tractor and beside his plow
Shall stand there in confusion as we wet his brow
With the tears of all the businessmen
Who see what they have done to him,
And the weary farmers of the earth shall rest.
And the aching workers of the world again shall sing
These words in mighty choruses to all will bring:
“We shall no longer be the poor
For no one owns us any more,”
And the workers of the world again shall sing.
When the soldiers burn their uniforms in every land,
And the foxholes of the borders will be left unmanned,
General, when you come for your review,
The troops will have forgotten you,
And the men and women of the earth shall rest.
ILWU Clerks Strike, Close Down Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
http://urlet.com/gotham.surprises
Congratulations to the Humboldt area for it’s contribution to the Jimmy Kimmel show the other night. The country is still laughing at you.
The communist selected President’s Gun Ban List is out, and it’s bad news. They’re going after the courts, regulatory agencies, firearms dealers, and statutes in an all-out effort to restrict We the people. Gun bans will impact our freedoms under search & seizure, due process, confiscated property, state’s rights, free speech, right to assemble, and more, in addition to the Second Amendment. Remember, the first step in dictatorship is to disarm the people. It’s registration and then confiscation. They need proof of crime to seize. What is crime? You already know this – murder, rape, theft – harm to another Life Form. Otherwise, IT’S ALL COMMERCIAL. They want to apply the ‘letter’ of the law, and not the spirit of the law. “The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” Jefferson
“They say that this is a country of laws, well, when the law itself is lawless by application and when the intent of the law is for extortion of wealth or reprisal over protection of the people, then the letter of the law itself becomes mute, and the application thereof a crime in itself to be repudiated.” (I wrote WJB – don’t know who).
Jefferson quotes: (BTW, Jefferson along with Samuel Adams, John Adams, Patrick Henry, and many others, refused to sign the Federal Constitution. Patrick Henry said that, ‘he smelt a rat.’)
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was or will be.”
“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans and must be that for every free state.”
“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while the evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they have become accustomed.”
“The earth belongs to the living, not the dead.” This corpse oration recording/programming has been playing on re-run for centuries.
Devolution (1545) – transference (as of rights, authority, responsibility) to another; especially the surrender of powers to local authorities by a central government.
GQ name Romney as the #1 Least Influential Person in 2012. He is finally #1 at something.
Joan? Are those some of the lyrics from the “le International?” [spell?]
No, it’s Joan her self, moviedad. I looked it up last night:
Here are some lyrics to L’Internationale, French ones towards the bottom. There is a little relation, but you’ll see they’re not the same.
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/sounds/lyrics/international.htm
Ah, Joan. I remember several episodes with her up close, back in the Bay Area day. Especially the overnight seminar/something-like-Esalen event on non-violence, with her philosopher Richard Sandperl.
And Michelle Obama, who has a world stage to perform on, finished 7th.
Quebec succeeded in pushing out a 75% tuition increase through months of mobilization, protestation, and voting out the government.
How Quebec was won
http://campusprogress.org/articles/how_quebec_was_won/
Did anyone notice that Obama signed legislation that reduces pell grants to approx. 100,000 students? The media kept it pretty quiet prior to the elections, but it’s coming out now.
This is your future if Arkley and his houseboy Tyson get ther way………Just think Mad River
A bridge collapsed in southern New Jersey early Friday, derailing a freight train and spilling carloads of toxic chemicals.
Emergency crews rushed to Paulsboro after four railroad tank cars were dumped into the Mantua Creek and began leaking vinyl chloride, the Gloucester County Times reported.
About 18 people reported breathing difficulties, according to the newspaper.
No deaths were reported.
Residents of Paulsboro, West Deptford and East Greenwich Township were told to stay inside after the crash.
Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas and known human carcinogen, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Exposure to it affects the central nervous system and can cause dizziness, drowsiness, headaches and giddiness.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/train-derails-n-spills-toxic-chemicals-article-1.1210839#ixzz2DireJ8OF
Russia does family values: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/30/russian-parliament-federal-anti-gay-law
It’s interesting that the “conservative” agenda is more similar to authoritarian models than democratic ones, Mitch. They have no problem using virtual (and even actual!) slave labor and destruction of the environment for greater profit and they have no respect for anyone’s rights or views but their own. Right wing “freedom” is just another word for exploitation of anyone, anything, anywhere, all the time for profit and power.
Interesting, indeed.
I think I’ve mentioned here that I’ve been reading Steven Pinker’s “On the Better Angels of our Nature.” Pinker is always great, though I find myself resisting much of what he is asserting and documenting.
Among (many) other things, he points out that liberals and conservatives tend to have differing moralities, with conservatives actually moralizing about more things than liberals. The things that conservatives include in their moral focus but liberals do not include loyalty and respect for authority. (So, for example, many conservatives have less of a problem with nepotism — family loyalty trumps office loyalty — than do liberals.)
He also points out that things like Peter Singer’s expanding circle of concern (Singer is best known for animal rights activism) are hard to reconcile with some conservative values, but that the civilizing trend has moved from conservative conceptions of morality towards liberal.
Once you get off the reality track you can believe anything, Mitch; even that restricting the rights of others is freedom.
The Astounding World of the Future
A funny mid-20th century newsreel featuring amazingly accurate predictions of the year 2000.
BEST SHORT FILM – New York Comedy Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Montrael Just For Laughs Comedy Festival
Chicago Short Film Festival
Written and Directed by Scott Dikkers
Starring Tim Harrod, Maria Schneider
DP: Natalie Richter
I can’t wait till someone responds with 113 different examples of why this couldn’t be from the mid 20th century. LOL
Just Watchin is a troll. Please do not respond to his provocations.
You’re absolutely right Ms Jane. I’m sure there would be argument as to what defines “reality,” and that is also a part of the delusional mind. Many on the right feel they have “morals” and progressives don’t, based solely on the abortion issue. Compassion for the poor is another area where the right feels it has the moral high ground. They feel that giving food and shelter to the homeless and the addicted is doing them a disservice by enabling their bad behavior. Once this kind of thinking is put in place, there is no area where they can’t claim the high ground against those of us who feel that “reality” is what is going on now, this minute; in people’s lives. Most of these hard-nosed right-wingers would melt if they had to actually deal with a family living in a car with their kids. They take great care to avoid ever coming into real contact with the suffering. It would weaken their Calvinist philosophy.
Yeah, yeah; I do know how they “say” they feel about these issues. All one has to do is listen to any one of them for five minutes, and they’ll tell you the same things I just said about them.
“Bangladesh has the lowest garment wages in the world, and many of the Tazreen factory’s victims were young rural women with little education, who earned as little as $45 a month in an industry that now accounts for $19 billion in exports.”
“In Bangladesh, factory fires have been a persistent problem, with the International Labor Rights Forum saying more than 600 garment workers have died in such fires since 2005.”
“Mr. Hossain said a team from Walmart’s local office conducted a compliance audit last year and faulted the factory for excessive overtime, while making no mention of fire safety or other issues.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/world/asia/bangladesh-fire-exposes-safety-gap-in-supply-chain.html?ref=global-home
How many pennies do you think they would have to add to each item (90 seconds to make a jacket hood for $45 a month pay) made in sweatshops (or take from shareholder dividends) to provide safe working conditions?
If a garment worker can make a jacket hood in 90 seconds and earns $45 a month for 160 hours, and you know she works longer hours than that, her hourly rate would be approx 28 cents. If it takes 90 seconds to make a jacket hood and she makes 40 hoods in an hour, the cost of her labor would be .007 per jacket hood.
Kevin Gardner, a Walmart spokesman, said the company stopped authorizing production at Tazreen “many months before the fire.” Walmart warned on two seperate inspections that Tazreen was in violation of fire codes.
This article puts responsibility where it belongs:on the local government:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/bangladesh-factory-fire_n_2256741.html?utm_hp_ref=business
Climate change update:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/ticking-arctic-carbon-bomb-may-b.html
From the best Xmas record of all times:
When the state starts blaming Facebook for missing it’s revenue budget, you know it’s in trouble. Wait till all the future millionaires establish residence in “no state tax” states before they cash in.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/12/california-revenues-lag-due-to-facebook-corporate-refunds.html#mi_rss=Business
House Democratic candidates won about 50.5 percent of the national vote but only took 46 percent of seats. In 40 years only in 1996 did the party that won the majority of votes end up with a minority of the house. There are 2 factors at play here, redistricting dominated by Republican legislatures and concentration of Democratic voters in cities.
In NC, Democratic House candidates won 51 percent of the vote, but only 27 percent of the House seats.
The Republican advantage in House seats gives them no incentive to work for the majority because they have created a system in which they can stay in office against even the majority in their own states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/us/politics/in-talks-house-majority-weighs-loyalty-to-voters.html?pagewanted=1&hp
In PA, where President Obama won 52% of the vote and Democratic candidates for House seats won the majority of votes statewide, Democrats only “won” 5 out of 18 House seats.
Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/public-bus-audio-surveillance/
Livestreams, info on today’s Michigan Union protests against “right to work”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021960772
Something that everyone, regardless of political leaning, should be concerned with.
A fine example of the Michigan unions at work:
http://autos.aol.com/article/chrysler-rehires-drinking-drugging-workers/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl13%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D244089
so when i go to sleep at night because if i don’t sleep… i Die its called illegal camping; but when some fanatics camp out for the new Hobbit film its legal. now don’t get me wrong I’m a fanatic to0; i would probably spend 3 days camping out for the first multimillion dollar Megaten movie (dreaming of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Twilight Glittering Vampires) but luckily hell will probably be full of bunnies by then~. never the less the blatant selective enforcement of the law is obvious.
real time coverage of shooting tragedy in conn:
http://tinyurl.com/cxfslqt
The more guns there are, the safer everybody is. Right?
It looks like BarryO’s former right hand man, Eahm Emanuel, is leading the way in union busting:
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/12/14/ohare-janitors-carol-at-mayor-emanuels-house-to-save-their-job/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl9%7Csec3_lnk2%26pLid%3D246133
Just think of how many children might still be alive if even one school employee had been carrying a firearm.
. . .or if each of the kids had his or her own cute little Glock. . .Great stocking-stuffers!
Many single women, a key bloc, are avoiding GOP
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
DENVER — Sara Stevenson spends her working hours surrounded by Republicans, namely the married men who work alongside her in a Denver oil and gas firm company. But after hours and on weekends, she usually spends her time with other single women, and there’s not a Republican in sight among the bunch.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/15/5056221/many-single-women-a-key-bloc-are.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News#storylink=cpy
Great news for the gene pool!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930121512.htm
will making Linda Atkins M
ayor Pro Tem eliminate her from voting when she serves as such? what a swell way to neutralize her, such an honor…
No, as Mayor Pro Tem she casts any tie breaking vote……so no difference really.
So…..this lesbo hangs with women. Where’s the surprise here???
Just Wankin’ keeps at it
Remember the Mexican Walmart bribery story? Here’s the rest of it and it isn’t pretty:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/business/walmart-bribes-teotihuacan.html?hp&_r=0
“The Times’s examination reveals that Wal-Mart de Mexico was not the reluctant victim of a corrupt culture that insisted on bribes as the cost of doing business. Nor did it pay bribes merely to speed up routine approvals. Rather, Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance — public votes, open debates, transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals.”
Too bad BJ can’t channel her Walmart hate into something positive.
Testing. I had 2 posts in a row not post on the “unmoderated” thread.
3 posts not post.
They haven’t appeared in my email, PJ. There’s no difference between the unmoderated thread and the mental health thread or Quick Notes except for my behavior when things turn up in my email.
And now my posts won’t post on quick notes.
Today’s T-S page B1 has an article on obummer care that outlines the problems we face. The regional administrator for Medicare breathlessly extols the free preventive health benefits, free counseling, free sexual disease screening, free weight loss counseling, and you pay nothing. (of course if your doctor accepts the medicare payment amount) He boldly states that obummer care …” strengthened Medicare in important ways.” But forgot to mention the cut in funding and the reduced payments to providers. While not lying he sure isn’t telling the truth.
David Tyson’s Legacy.
Discuss.
My point of view: David Tyson leaves the city of Eureka under a crushing debt burden, with crumbling infrastructure, empty storefronts and empty redevelopment parcels on the waterfront. A decade of empy promises.
This is worthy of a thread.
Tyson idea is worthy of its own thread..but Bitch won’t do it..she has to spend half her day appeasing BJ and assuring BJ that her posts are actually going to post eventually once Bitch figures out what the fuck she is doing.
That and fact new regime (bitch and Kirk) won’t do any of the types of threads that H used to do which brought most of us here in the first place.
The Herald has a fork handle sticking up out of it now that these pussies are in charge
FYI…..I didn’t post under the “Smoke Monster” name, but it appears that the “BJ” moniker is catching on !
No calls for the arcana city council to go to jail?
It looks like Arcata is just as bankrupt as Eureka is. Wonder if Eureka has any Redevelopment skeletons in its closet.
where’s all the outrage? oh…that’s right, when it’s mckinleyville, eureka, or fortuna that screws up financially, it is a conspiracy, they did it for the money, connect the dots, developers!, jail! grand jury, follow the money!
Arcata – where they actually gave money to developers, apparently bent state rules, and have been threatened by the state.
silence. good job, hypocrites.
Remembering all the libs saying Eureka is so backward and should run their city just like Arcata.
In case you were thinking that President Obama and John Boehner were miles apart on reaching a fiscal cliff deal, the AP is here to help:
Obama wants to raise taxes by about $20bn a year more than Boehner. The two men differ over spending cuts by roughly the same amount.
By almost any measure, $20bn is real money. Yet compared to the $2.6 trillion the government expects to collect next year and to the $3.6 trillion it plans to spend, $20bn barely registers — less than 1% of what the government already is on track to raise and spend. Relative to the US economy, which should weigh in at well over $15 trillion next year, $20bn is even smaller.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, is holding a press conference – and uses an unfortunate turn of phrase:
This isn’t John Boehner’s problem to solve. He’s done his part. He’s bent over backwards.
Yes, that’s an accurate description of what happened last night to John Boehner.
NRA proposes fascist national school police force to be called School Security Service – SSA.
250,000 troops quartered in your town.
It is an impractical idea but not for the moronic reason you state.
Mitch? Are you doing the whole blog now on your own? Time for “Heraldo” to pass it on.
Mitch ….. here’s a serious question that I’ve wondered about for some time. Might be a subject for a thread. I’ve watched as the liberal locals rail against practically every form of elected officials, be they school board, councils, board of Eds., board of Supes, and so forth, as being evil conservatives and Republicans. In such a liberal, democrat heavy area like Northern Calif., how does anyone but a democrat get elected? And before the “they buy the elections” rhetoric starts, it must be more than that.
Careful. You start asking questions and the Liberal Haters will start swarming you like locusts.
Most of the local elected posts are non-partisan. Most Republicans around here either change to Decline to State (the Boys of Summer) or to Democrat (like Bonnie Neeley and Virginia Bass) in order to get elected or stay in office for the higher statewide and federal offices.
From what I’ve seen on here, when blame is placed on elected officials for everything that goes wrong, and there seems to be no end to the blame game, the last thing they get called is “non-partisan”.
The offices are not partisan. The office holders are clearly partisan. That should be easy to understand even for a Florida teatard.
No shit the offices are non-partisan, moron. The question was how do Conservatives get elected to them in such a heavily democrat area. Geeez, do I have to explain everything to you Anon?
quick witted banter
thought provoking cutting edge
the herald of yore
Mitch……here’s an idea. There are so many posts under “Anonymous” that it gets confusing. Why not remove that as an option. It’s not like you’re asking anyone to divulge their real name, just make up a pseudonym.
Quote from the comments tab: ¨But if you really want to be daring, invent a clever pseudonym and add it to the “name” field¨
once there was a place
where we would share opinion
and christmas haiku
Secret Boy Scout Molestation Files Include Cases from Ferndale, Crescent City, Fort Bragg, Ukiah, Philo, Willits, Red Bluff, Anderson, Yreka and Dorris. Also Cave Junction, Ashland and Grants Pass Oregon.
http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/boyscouts-cases/
Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 – 10:04 pm
LOS ANGELES — Thousands of previously unpublished Boy Scouts of America files that detail suspected sexual abuse by employees and volunteers have been posted online.
The Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/TiA546 ) published the database containing redacted victims’ names on Tuesday, including material that was released earlier by an Oregon Supreme Court judge’s ruling. The names of the alleged abusers – including doctors, teachers, priests – are included.
there once were some bloggers from Humboldt
whose collective iqs took a tumble
when larry left town
the herald crashed down
it collapsed with hardly a rumble
What´s the difference between the Democrats being in charge of the American government and the Republicans being in charge?
¨Obama has already authorized 283 strikes in Pakistan, six times more than the number during President George W. Bush’s eight years in office, Bergen wrote earlier this month. As a result, the number of estimated deaths from the Obama administration’s drone strikes is more than four times what it was during the Bush administration — somewhere between 1,494 and 2,618.¨ -Sept 26, 2012
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/25/world/asia/pakistan-us-drone-strikes/index.html
Hey Mitch, the first couple of articles have disappeared! I didn’t do it!
January happenings at Jefferson
While operating on only small grants, community donations, volunteer service and organizational partnerships WCIA is proud to announce the following opportunities at Jefferson in January.
Youth cooking class Friday Jan 4th 11-2 contact Hannah Cory for more information, hcory at umich dot edu, youth 7-13 welcome
NorCaliente Dance Fitness Wednesday nights beginning January 16th at 6 pm contact Adeen McBurney for more information, adoona at gmail dot com
Fundamentals of Community Drum Thursday nights beginning January 17th at 6pm contact Bob Wolofson for more information, rwolofson at sbcglobal dot net
Parent Voices Parenting Support Group meets January 18th 5:30 pm contact Brandy Asher BAsher at changingtidesfs dot org for more information
Senior Action Coalition meets Wednesday January 16 11:30-2 contact Yvonne Doble for more information doble at a1aa dot org
Martin Luther King Day Community Clean up January 21 10-2 contact Heidi at lets.buy.jefferson at gmail dot com
We have a beautiful new ADA bathroom thanks to Timothy and Alexander Salvos fund for youth, Piersons Building Center, OBD Plumbing, TI Smith Electric and generous donations from the community, and we are chipping away at other necessities on a shoestring.
Some of our real superstars this year were
PG&E and Kaboom for the Playground
Darrell at OBD Plumbing for Building Maintenance, Security as well as plumbing
Pierson’s Building Center for donations and great pricing
Eureka Natural Foods – for the AWESOME opportunities to provide healthy nutritious organic locally produced produce at all WCIA community events. Vellutini Baking Company, Bien Padre and New Moon Cafe for help with food for our events. A big huge list of donors is on our webpage, and of course our 700+ volunteers that have shown up and helped out this year.
If you are in the position to make a small donation, all money is used frugally and responsibly to provide direct service to the community and is 100% tax deductible.
Thank You Eureka…what a year :)
In Service,
Heidi Benzonelli, President
Westside Community Improvement Association
PO Box 5315
Eureka CA 95502
typo, sr action coalition contact is ydoble at a1aa dot org
Mitch…..what about a thread on New Year’s resolutions?
We went to see Les Miserables last night. I loved it, and I think the reviewers who complain about the singing are completely missing the point. I was ferklumpt, but not as ferklumpt as these folks:
Studying Marijuana and Its Loftier Purpose
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world/middleeast/new-insights-on-marijuana-in-israel-where-its-illegal.html?hp
It was strange to watch the movie “Lincoln,” and not hear one mention, or see a portrayal of Frederick Douglas. I did run to the restroom once for about a half of minute. The whole movie is about slavery and the 13th amendment, and not one word about Douglas. Not to mention the whole thing was preposterous, Lincoln wasn’t all that concerned with the plight of slaves, he was only concerned with the preservation of the Union.
¨only concerned with¨? He was the President, he had many concerns. 21st Century Sofa King´s cast their stones, what have they done to ´make´ America better?
¨Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.¨ -Abraham Lincoln
Moviedad is right, Smarty. Freeing the slaves was punishment for the south’s rebellion, not the reason for the civil war. The issue was the restriction of slavery to existing slave states and prohibition of slavery in future states. While Lincoln may have found slavery objectionable, he certainly didn’t believe all men were created equal.
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”
Abraham Lincoln, Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
Even the Smart 5th Grader is smarter than you.
Mitch or Eric. Pardon me, just posted in ¨Shut It Down¨ and now Awaiting Moderation. Please review and post, thx
Now I´ve double posted on your thread Eric, apologies. Feel free to delete one, it´s your call, your thread. thx
Massive Layoffs at Security National
Before we start celebrating Junior´s misfortune, especially me, remember, now some of our neighbors are going into 2013 without jobs. I know jobs aren´t the most important thing in life, but I want myself to show respect for the workers and their families.
http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/jan/2/mass-layoffs-security-national/
¨Lincoln wasn’t all that concerned with the plight of slaves, he was only concerned with the preservation of the Union.¨ -MD
¨While Lincoln may have found slavery objectionable, he certainly didn’t believe all men were created equal.¨ -PJ
¨Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.¨ -Abraham Lincoln
Well PJ, I don´t know what President Lincoln ¨believed¨, I´m not privy to his mind nor conscience. All I have are his words, the fact that through his leadership Slavery ended, and he was killed for this. I´ll leave what his actual ¨beliefs¨ were and what his actual ¨concerns¨were to people much more omnipotent than I am.
Anyone who has used a flexible spending account in the past should read this:http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/how-health-care-reform-changes-fsas-hsas-1.aspx
AlGore goes green, as in green Benjamins. He even tried to get the sale through the last week of December, to avoid the new Obama tax increase, after re-stating recently that the wealthy need to pay more of “their fair share”liberal hipocrisy at it’s finest:http://voices.yahoo.com/al-gore-sells-current-tv-al-jazeera-making-him-11958992.html?cat=9
I’m just curious, and wondering if I can get an honest answer from the liberals that frequent this blog: Had it been Mitt Romney, instead of Al Gore, trying to do a 500 million dollar deal at the last minute to avoid the new Obama taxes kicking in, how do you think the mainstream media would have reacted?
I don’t blame owlgore for not wanting to give money to the federal government to squander, but to sell out to al jazeera? NBC,CBS,PBS,NPR,ABC,MSNBS,CNN,RT, already dislike the United States why add another voice? Oh, that’s right they hate America, balanced reporting. Thank God for FOX News. Gore is a fat hypocrite.
“Thank God for FOX News.”
How is She involved in this?
Sorry Mitch, Eric, et al. This blog is so over. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. It used to be educational to debate true Libertarians and Republicans, but these guy’s are just weirdos who talk crap without ever adding anything to the conversation, If it was me I’d just shut it down rather than give these same creeps a platform to promote their childish ignorance.
Moviedad has left the building.
I ask for one honest answer, and Movie Dad has a hissy fit and takes his toys home. I would have thought that he might be honest just once. Like Col. Jessup said in “A Few Good Men”……..you can’t handle the truth.
Just Watching? You made the mistake of assuming that Moviedad was intelligent.
I never accused MD of being intelligent. I would never do that. I did wonder if he could give an honest answer. He typically throws out “facts” that I suppose he doesn’t expect to be called on.
I’m still looking for an honest answer to my above question. If Romney had done what Gore did, how would it have been reported??
It will be Interesting to see just how liberal a government can be, once you own it:http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/06/5094665/dan-walters-democratic-ownership.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters
I’ll just live this here.
Made me want to run out to Target and shop !!!
How about a thread on 77% of working Americans getting a considerable tax increase, when BarryO promised it would only be on the wealthy?
I’ve noticed that extreme right wingers can’t bring themselves to address the president by his title or with any sort of respect.
He went by the name Barry for a large period of his life. And no comment on his lie that middle Americans would see no tax increase?
And I’d hardly call myself an extreme right winger. For example: I’m pro abortion, even encourage it in certain situations, I’m for certain forms of gun control, I’m for closing tax loopholes, I liked ole horndog Clinton, and I’m an atheist. Now that I read it, I think I might be a closet democrat!!
Mitch (or any Humboldt local)…..I have a question. It has recently been in the news that today’s college students feel a high sense of entitlement and even superiority over their own fellow students. Assuming Mitch that you are a long time resident (I really don’t know), and with the large student presence from CR and HSU, have you noticed any change as the years have gone by?
JW,
I’ve lived in Humboldt about 15 years. I haven’t noticed any change in the college students, except they keep getting younger.
I suspect every generation has complained that the younger generation has too much of a sense of entitlement. Humboldt is a special case environment, because the connection between education and earnings is not present due to our highest-paying entry-level industry being trimming pot.
I’ve met a good number of young people in Humboldt (not connected with the industry, AFAIK), who have put in huge amounts of volunteer time doing hard work, and I’ve also seen young people here and elsewhere THRILLED to get a short term part time clerical job paying $15/hour.
I suspect a lot of the “entitlement” may be that college educated young people don’t jump for joy to get paid minimum wage at McDonalds. I wouldn’t either. I’d do it if I had to, but it would be hard to fake service with a smile.
They probably don’t appreciate earning minimum wage with a college degree, having to rely on food stamps and medicaid to survive without the funds to repay their student loans either.
Went and saw Lincoln at the Broadway Theater last night, great movie everybody should see it.
A-hem, Herlado:
http://www.ferndaleenterprise.com/2013/01/09/humboldt-county-fair-board-no-contract-renewal-manager-stuart-titus/
TOP-11 “ONLY IN AMERICA” OBSERVATIONS — BY A CANADIAN*
1) Only in America could the rich people – who pay 86% of all income
taxes – be accused of not paying their “fair share” by people who
don’t pay any income taxes at all.
2) Only in America could people claim that the government still
discriminates against black Americans when they have a black
President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal
workforce is black while only 12% of the population is black
3) Only in America could they have had the two people most responsible
for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury
Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means
Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher
taxes.
4) Only in America can they have terrorists kill people in the name of
Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims
might be harmed by the backlash.
5) Only in America would they make people who want to legally become
American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens
of thousands of dollars for the privilege while they discuss letting
anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just ‘magically’ become
American citizens.
6) Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the
budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be thought of as
“extremists.”
7) Only in America could you need to present a driver’s license to
cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.
8) Only in America could people demand the government investigate
whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas
went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company
(Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes
(Nike).
9) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from
the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a Trillion
dollars more than it has per year – for total spending of $7-Million
PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.
10) Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich
at a $35,000.00 a plate campaign fund-raising event.
11) Only in America can a man with no background, no qualifications
and no experience … and a complete failure at his job … be
reelected.
Good post JW, good post.
Of course it is the truth and liberals here cannot stand the truth.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/13/jack-lew-tim-geithner-us-treasury-boss
“…And now we will have Jack Lew. What can we expect of him?
I refer you to The Who’s lyrics. For three years before entering the Obama administration, Lew was a Citigroup executive, and for the last year he was the chief operating officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments, which made some money by betting against mortgage securities, but which lost many billions more when the crisis came. That crisis and those losses did not prevent Lew from receiving a handsome bonus, paid after he had been appointed to his first Obama administration job.
But that isn’t his main problem. His main problem is that he has already demonstrated that he’s willing to be a typical political hack, and to give bankers what they want. In congressional testimony, he actually said, with a straight face, that deregulation had not contributed to the financial crisis.
As The Who have warned us …”
Japan is changing tacks on economic policy, moving from failed austerity to stimulus.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/opinion/krugman-japan-steps-out.html?hp
New post on Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy
The Shape of Things to Come
by Dan Farber
The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee has issued a draft of its next report on U.S. climate impacts. The draft will no doubt change as a result of the public comment period, but the broad outlines are likely to stay the same.
Here are some of the key predictions:
Projected Temps With Different Emissions Levels (from WaPo).
Higher temperatures. “U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few decades projected to see another 2°F to 4°F of warming in most areas. The amount of warming by the end of the century is projected to correspond closely to the cumulative global emissions of greenhouse gases up to that time: roughly 3°F to 5°F under a lower emissions scenario[and]involving substantial reductions in emissions after 2050 … and 5°F to 10°F for a higher emissions scenario assuming continued increases in emissions.”
More extremes. “There is strong evidence to indicate that human influence on the climate has already roughly doubled the probability of extreme heat events like the record-breaking summer of 2011 in Texas and Oklahoma.”
Higher seas. “Sea level is projected to rise by another 1 to 4 feet in this century….The stakes are high, as nearly five million Americans live within four feet of the local high-tide level.”
Dan Farber | January 14, 2013 at 5:26 am | Categories: Climate Change | URL: http://wp.me/prxko-4Uy
Comment See all comments
Thanks PJ. Your post shows Krugman could be very dangerous in a government position of power. The deficit is meaningless and we should simply spend our way out of the stagnation?
obama has spent 6 TRILLION dollars in deficits in the last four years and it had no impact on the economy. And krugman’s answer is what? Spend 12 TRILLION dollars more in the next four? Are you all insane?
Anon………You ask if they (libs) are all insane. Simple answer….yes they are.
Is it true District Atorney Alan Dollison was fired?
1) Did deficits matter to you during the Bush years?
2) Where did you get your PhD in economics?
Decentralized outsourcing: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EGh4ld_KwXUJ:securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2013/01/14/case-study-pro-active-log-review-might-be-a-good-idea/+http://securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2013/01/14/case-study-pro-active-log-review-might-be-a-good-idea/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
“Deputy district attorney out after 6 years”
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_22383817/deputy-district-attorney-out-after-6-years?source=most_viewed
Bet there’s a story there. But management will issue the usual “personnel matter” disclaimer and Allan will keep his head down and move on to another opportunity. For good or for bad, we’ll never know the facts regarding public servants or public office.
I was just wondering…….had the Sandy Hook killer not killed his mother, do you think she could have been held criminally liable for all of the murders, since she owned the guns, and did not properly secure them??
Of course the Bush deficits bothered me and I said so at the time. So did you.
But he was a piker compared to obama. You sold your soul to the Democratic party. No problem with Obama spending us to hell for you anymore.
Hypocrite.
“If Dwight Eisenhower had come back from the war
and decided to run as a Democrat– which he almost
did– there would be no Republican Party today. They
would be like the Ku Klux Klan small knots of hate-
crazed rich people scattered in walled ghettos around
the country, instead of the dominant ruling autocracy
that they have been for most of the last four decades.”
Hunter S Thompson
Lifted from this weeks AVA.
You didn’t reveal where you got your PhD in economics. Also, like I said somewhere else, this ain’t a household budget we’re dealing with here. You don’t just say fuck it, can’t afford car insurance this month so I’ll do without. This is the most complex economy in the world. It takes more than simple ideas to dig us out. Gov’t spending is a fairly well-proven way of staving off recession until a time when the economy recovers and can float itself.
This from HuffPo:
“Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded its outlook for the higher education sector to negative across the board, saying even prestigious, top-tier research universities are now under threat from declining enrollment, government spending cuts and even growing public doubts over the value of a college degree. . .
The report explaining the decision outlines a range of financial challenges now burdening virtually all institutions, though in different measures in different places – stagnant family income that limits pricing power, substantial state funding cuts, a demographic dip in the population of new high school graduates and a federal budget standoff that almost certainly bodes ill for the future flow of dollars for research and student-aid programs like Pell Grants.”
We don’t need no education.
We do need a good education, today more than ever. Post #350 is a prime example of the uninformed.
We do need a new President, today more than ever.
House Republicans make a budget proposal that will expose Obama & the Democrat’s hypocrisy to even the liberals here.
Next week they will introduce a measure to give a three month extension in the raising of the debt ceiling. In exchange the Democrats have to agree that if there is no budget by the end of the three months all pay for Congressman ends until there is one. Ends, not postponed.
Spending must be cut or this country will go the way of Greece.
Just one problem for the people out there who are so concerned about the Constitution, or at least its second amendment. That’s the 27th amendment.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxvii
Trying to find cover for your Democrats old, mediocre Mitch?
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video/#!/news/local/The-Interview–Robert-Reich/187551311
If that’s what you consider the Constitution, #355, I suppose so. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if the house republicans had actually read the document they love trotting out?
Why are you trying to direct the question away from the Republican’s challenge Mitch? Isn’t no budget = no pay for either Republicans or Democrats a good thing?
Get out of your rut. Say something nice about the Republicans in Congress when they put their own pockets behind what they say.
OK TNGA,
How’s this? Let’s go to a room. You get to bring three of your friends and I get to bring five of mine. We’ll vote on how to divide up our money, majority wins. None of us get to eat until we vote. I really like the idea, and I’d say it proves I’m really willing to put my money where my mouth is. Don’t you agree?
While we are all having fun here the latest muslim follies in Algeria has resulted in 23 hostages dead. The report on Fox News also states that 32 militants are also dead. Hopefully that’s all of them. Sigh.
Sorry Mitch, not an appropriate example.
Try thinking here please. None of us gets to eat. That is the incentive for both the majority and the minority to compromise.
Another fault in your example. One side controls the House (the Republicans) and the other side controlls the Senate (the Democrats). It is 50/50 not 3 to 5. So it is not I get to bring 3 thinking friends and you bring 5 bellowing sheep as friends. We each bring 5 friends.
If you are to debate with me you need to try harder.
You’ve caught me, TNGA. You’re right.
If you wanted honest debate, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Death toll in Algeria is up to 81, the religion of peace strikes again.
January 21, 2013 at 8:03 am | #28 Mitch
“…I’m not sure what the difference is between liberal and progressive, but I know that people who identify as “progressive” sometimes consider “liberal” an insult.”
So who is a progressive? You might be one if
• You think health care is a basic human right, and that single-payer national health insurance is a worthwhile reform on our way toward creating a non-profit national health care service.
• You think that human rights ought always to trump property rights.
• You think U.S. military spending is an obscene waste of resources, and that the only freedom this spending protects is the freedom of economic elites to exploit working people all around the planet.
• You think U.S. troops should be brought home not only from Afghanistan and Iraq, but from all 130 countries in which the U.S. has military bases.
• You think political leaders who engage in “preemptive war” and invasions should be brought to trial for crimes against humanity and judged against the standards of international law established at Nuremberg after World War Two.
• You think public education should be free, not just from kindergarten through high school, but as far as a person is willing and able to go.
• You think that electoral reform should include instant run-off voting, publicly-financed elections, easy ballot access for all parties, and proportional representation.
• You think that electoral democracy is not enough, and that democracy must also be participatory and extend to workplaces.
• You think that strengthening the rights of all workers to unionize and bargain collectively is a useful step toward full economic democracy.
• You think that as a society we have a collective obligation to provide everyone who is willing and able to work with a job that pays a living wage and offers dignity.
• You think that a class system which forces some people to do dirty, dangerous, boring work all the time, while others get to do clean, safe, interesting work all the time, can never deliver social justice.
• You think that regulating big corporations isn’t enough, and that such corporations, if they are allowed to exist at all, must either serve the common good or be put into public receivership.
• You think that the legal doctrine granting corporations the same constitutional rights as natural persons is absurd and must be overturned.
• You think it’s wrong to allow individuals to accumulate wealth without limits, and that the highest incomes should be capped well before they begin to threaten community and democracy.
• You think that wealth, not just income, should be taxed.
• You think it’s crazy to use the Old Testament as a policy guide for the 21st century.
• You believe in celebrating diversity, while also recognizing that having women and people of color proportionately represented among the class of oppressors is not the goal we should be aiming for.
• You think that the state has no right to kill, and that putting people to death to show that killing is wrong will always be a self-defeating policy.
• You think that anyone who desires the reins of power that come with high political office should, by reason of that desire, be seen as unfit for the job.
• You think that instead of more leaders, we need fewer followers.
• You think that national borders, while sometimes establishing territories of safety, more often establish territories of exploitation, much like gang turf.
• You are open to considering how the privileges you enjoy because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and/or physical ability might come at the expense of others.
• You believe that voting every few years is a weak form of political participation, and that achieving social justice requires concerted effort before, during, and after elections.
• You think that, ideally, no one would have more wealth more than they need until everyone has at least as much as they need to live a safe, happy, decent life.
• You recognize that an economic system which requires continuous expansion, destroys the environment, relies on rapidly-depleting fossil fuels, exacerbates inequality, and leads to war after war is unsustainable and must be replaced. Score a bonus point if you understand that sticking to the existing system is what’s unrealistic.
On the other hand, you might be a liberal if you believe that property rights are an important human right. Thanks for the quiz, SFG; I definitely flunk it.
“You think that human rights ought always to trump property rights.” Yes, Liberals and Democrats think property rights are equal to – or one and the same as – property rights. Conservatives/Republicans think property rights ought to trump human rights. See how neatly that flows?
Mitch. My 12:20 comment for Quick Notes is stuck in moderation. thx
I can see it, SFG, and I tried pasting it here since I can’t approve it. My first attempt ended up in moderation. I’ll try changing (removing) the links:
Liberals and Democrats on the other hand …
GOP and Feinstein Join to Fulfill Obama’s Demand for Renewed Warrantless Eavesdropping
https dot slash slash http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/28
Obama & Democrats Got More Donations from Wall Street than Republicans
http dot slash slash factreal.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/obama-democrats-got-more-donations-from-wall-street-than-republicans/
In the Senate, the 21 Democrats, one Republican and one Independent who courageously voted their consciences in 2002 against the War in Iraq were:
http dot slash slash usliberals.about.com/od/liberalleadership/a/IraqNayVote.htm
It’s really, really hard to fit “we must balance things against one another if we are to have any hope of achieving both liberty and justice for all” on a bumper. I always wonder what workers in utopia will do if anyone else can come along and take their sofa.
“Mean people suck” fits nicely on bumpers, but I always preferred the sticker that reads “who are the mean people?”
My dear departed father, who was annoyingly stupid until I grew up, loved this “joke” about a stupid rabbi.
People would come to Rabbi Levy to ask him to sort out their arguments with one another. He would listen to the first person, silently think for a long, long time, and say “I think you’re right.” Then he’d listen to their opponent, and after the opponent had finished rebutting the first person, the rabbi would silently think for a long, long time, and say “I think you’re right.” A third person, an onlooker, would invariably shout “But they can’t both be right, rebbe!” And so Rabbi SJ would silently think for a long, long, LONG time, and finally say, “I think you’re right.”
It drove me crazy every time, because I was proudly progressive.
I do not intend to disparage folks who consider themselves to be either Liberal or Democratic. My intent is to show that Establishment Liberals often vote for war, cozy up with Wall Street Banksters, and insist on warrant-less tapping. People with more progressive values need to have a point of reference to distinguish themselves from mainstream Washington values.
I think you’re right. (No, really. :) )
Interesting comment from Tiger Woods that he, like Phil Mickelson recently commented, moved out of Calif because of the taxes. Get used to it calif……the tax base is shrinking. Why do you think the Sacramento Kings are heading to Washington? And wait till the new Facebook millionaires take off. Welcome to Florida !!!
4. Louisiana
> Taxes paid by residents as pct. of income: 7.8%
> Total state and local taxes collected: $16.15 billion (24th highest)
> Pct. of total taxes paid by residents: 53.1% (4th lowest)
> Pct. of total taxes paid by non-residents: 46.9% (4th highest)
The tax burden on Louisiana residents fell from 8.2% in 2009 to 7.8% in 2010. Property taxes were low, at just $698 per capita. Sales taxes of 4% also ranked below the national median of 6%. While the state’s top income tax rate of 6% as high, this rate kicked in only for income above $50,000. Total income tax collections in Louisiana came to just over $500 per person in 2010, compared to a national rate of $767 per person.”
Join Robbin’ Junior in Louisiana. 4th lowest in the Union!
There is a connection between tax and a functioning society. You can live in an almost tax free zone in Dubai and enjoy all of the comforts (and squalor) of a third world country. Some of us actually feel that a healthy, educated, safe society is important, and outweighs the advantages of holing up in your mansion in state where illiteracy, teen pregnancy, and hunger are prevalent.
Louisiana ranks dead last on a composite index comparing how the fifty states fare on measures of economic vitality, education, health, crime and governance. The “Camelot Index” is issued annually by Federal Funds Information for States, a non-partisan subscription service created by the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks and reports on the fiscal impact of federal budget and policy decisions on state budgets and programs.
Louisiana (and Mississippi) ranked #50 on the “healthy people” – based on age-adjusted death rates, infant mortality rates and the percentage of people without health insurance.
Louisiana ranked 48th, ahead of only Tennessee and South Carolina, on “crime-free state” ranking – a simple combination of the violent crime and property crime rates.
Louisiana placed 41st in terms of “healthy economy” – based on the percentage of people in poverty, employment growth, population growth, per capita income growth, per capita federal tax liabilities — a reflection of high incomes — per capita taxable resources and the annual mean wage for retail salespeople.. Mississippi and Alabama were at the bottom.
But the rich feel so much richer in the third world and states that would be third world without federal money.
I’ve never been to Dubai, but it doesn’t strike me as “third world squalor” from what I’ve seen. But if Calif runs the money makers out, it may give Louisiana a race to the bottom.
California can afford to lose plenty of millionaires. It’s the largest and most dynamic state economy in the U.S. We’ll just make more.
Also, I’m sure Tiger and Phil will be still be visiting regularly to take advantage of the many perks that our tax dollars support.
Or you could be like M. Depardieu and move to Russia. Can you say “Dos vidanya?” Nice try.
Dubai is already at the bottom – it’s run on the equivalent of slave labor. But the rich step over the poor and ignore the poverty as they are captivated by the bright lights (and low taxes). JW’s clueless reply is not surprising.
Where would you send your kids to study science and engineering: California or Louisaina – (UCLA, UC Davis, Berkeley vs. LSU)? If you required cancer treatment would you fly to Baton Rouge or go to UCSF or UCLA medical center?
I’m glad to see Tiger and Phil leave. They have about as much integrity as Lance. Enjoy the humidity of the southeast and don’t let the door bump your wife-beatin’ ass on your way out.
I’m starting to think that JW’s problem with California, taken together with his odd obsession as a Floridian with trolling a HumCo blog and his efforts to evade paying taxes, might result from California nailing him long ago for tax fraud.
Awfully late in life to finally start thinking Anon, but it shows that anything is possible. Wait till the new Facebook millionaires relocate before cashing in. And I don’t have any problem with California…..I’m just fascinated by the stupid crap y’all do. It’s like a free circus, and Anon is the featured clown!
Not sure of your definition of “Facebook” millionaires, but I ‘d like to think the rich youth have quality of life desires. Sure you can live in the midwest or southeast and pay lower taxes – but then you have to live in the midwest or southeast. It’s a fine place to retire if you like golf and bass fishing (on the days it’s not unbearably hot or icey cold), but it doesn’t provide much of a draw for a young millionaire.
I’d like to think young millionaires have a bit more integrity than Tiger Woods and understand the connection between a healthy tax base and a state that can provide roads, health care , and education. My Dad was a white-collar professional in California during the 1960s. He paid a higher tax rate than I do now (on a similar income) and he paid pre-Prop 13 property tax. His kids were able to go to some of the best colleges and universities in the country at affordable rates and take advantage of modern infrastructure. Too bad the selfish rich don’t understand that connection…
You sound like an “American” to me “5th Grader.” Fairness, equality and freedom from injustice is “America,” to deluded people like myself who grew up surrounded by WWII vets. Sad part is we now look more and more like the system they fought against.
If that’s true, then why haven’t you managed to start thinking yet, JW? From the antiquity of your general viewpoint, I get the feeling you’re pretty late in life yourself.
Pointing out that the wealthy young of today are opting to move from high tax states is hardly an “antique” general viewpoint. It’s simply a fact. And I retired early and am still several years from social security age. But when I do start getting SS, I plan on giving it all to Wounded Warriors and The Special Olympics. Care to match it??
I’ll keep my donations going to the same places they already go — local NPR, the ACLU, the IRC, environmental organizations, and our local animal shelter. Don’t wait on me to start matching you as far as Social Security goes, though. If the GOP has their way it won’t be much of a program in 30ish years.
I don’t know what the IRC but I know how much the ACLU hates America and National Palestinian Radio isn’t far behind them.
You must be aware that Social Security has no money, only IOU’s from Uncle Sam, the same Uncle Sam that has over $16 trillion in debt, I’m sure you know that.
LOL. The ACLU hates America. That’s why they are entirely devoted to protecting our civil liberties. Perhaps you remember the Marine facing dismissal last year for saying he wouldn’t obey orders from Obama? The ACLU went to bat for that Marine on First Amendment grounds.
http://homepost.kpbs.org/news/2012/apr/04/aclu-joins-anti-obama-marines-fight-dismissal/
My point exactly, defending a US Marine that wont follow orders, that sure makes America strong.
“Making America strong” isn’t what you said. You said “hates America.” Those are, of course, two different things. One could imagine all manners of actions that violate our civil liberties but which are ostensibly done out of a love for America — the Patriot Act, for example.
Bobby Jindal has a blunt message for the GOP: “Stop being the stupid party.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gov-bobby-jindal-gop-stop-stupid-party-article-1.1247645
You profess to love him as I do. The difference between us is once he runs for President you will smear him just as you do every Republican and every conservative.
Hypocrite.
Who would vote for Jindal? He, like Haley Barbour, presides over a state that is last in about every measure of life quality. That’s not what most people want for the US.
When a foreign born body building actor can get elected governor of a state that he can’t even pronounce, anything is possible.
Warning from Robert Reich today:
Robert Reich
“I don’t give investment advice but I have to warn you: Stocks are way over-valued right now. The Dow and S&P are far higher than merited by economic fundamentals — fueled by small investors who have finally decided it’s safe to come back into the stock market. It’s the same old story: Big investors — including the big banks, hedge funds, private equity — have made a fortune off of the recent bull market. They’ve lured small investors in. Now, I suspect, they’re beginning to sell, while making bets against stocks in the future (short selling) — which will leave small investors high and dry.”
And that’s what happens when there is there is more money looking for investments than there are good investments. Bubbles get inflated, the big shots make billions and the little guy gets the shaft.
if you really believe this, short the market and make a fortune yourself.
Drive down 4th or 5th streets and look at all the empty storefronts. . .it’s like when the Mall opened back in the 80s, but the Mall looks even worse. Prosperity? Doesn’t look like it to me. Imagine what the jobless rate would be without dope grows, endless and expanding wars.
Not everyone puts their personal gain above their country’s, 24. Some people are actually patriotic.
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work
instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero , 55 BC
Worked great for Rome, didn’t it?
Cicero was an orator, not an emperor, so he was just expressing an opinion. Since you seem to be an expert on Roman history, please elaborate on the economic situation of Rome in 55 BC.
They were still trying to expand their empire to pay for it’s increasing military price and extravagant lifestyles in Rome with brutal oppression and inevitable revolts.
Today they prefer to bribe a few dictators for their human and natural resources. So much more profitable than paying a fair price or using military force, but they will resort to at least covert military action when they deem it necessary to protect corporate property in foreign lands.
For once I agree with JW, assuming he’s not backing away from the contents of this quote at #404.
My problem with applying that quote to modern America is twofold. One, you don’t stop public spending with a recession looming — you get the economy back on track and then address the debt. Allow the economy to tank and the debt will only grow far worse.
Two, the prevalence of freeloaders on welfare is far overblown. There’s far more money going to corporate welfare via bailouts and special interest tax loopholes than there is going to people on TANF.
let me get this straight: you think the small investors have been duped into buying overpriced securities and the market is headed for a big drop, but if they short the market like the big boys it is not patriotic? this makes no sense. are you saying we should continue buying overpriced securities in order to be patriotic?
if people are buying stocks and don’t understand the risks or evaluate the underlying value of the company they are investing in, then so be it. if a bunch of the big investors start dumping stocks and it brings the stock price down while the actual profitability of the company has not changed, it is time to buy.
When the actual profitability of the company (sales) does not justify the price of the shares (irrational exuberance) which is the current case across the stock market, little guys are going to get hurt. That isn’t good for our country or our economy. Making money by other people losing it isn’t very productive.
Anonymous 409,
By your logic, shorting is actually quite patriotic. Shorting will lower the price. Go for it.
Unfortunately, the correct price for the stock market is its current price. Always.
That must be why there are never “market corrections.”
And bubbles never pop.
411/412,
We’re not on the same page. Every day, scores of extremely well-paid reporters interview even better paid analysts and explain to cable TV viewers and newspaper readers why the market has moved as it has, and why it is mispriced. Then, the next day, something else happens, and they explain why it happened. They never seem to make enough on their insights to retire, but they do make decent livings attracting audiences to advertisers.
Are there “market corrections?” Of course there are, and they are well-labeled and identified after they occur. Bubbles? Absolutely. Well-identified just as soon as they pop.
“What caused this market decline, Biff? It was overpriced. Why did the market go up up, Muffy? It was underpriced.”
Yet, somehow, hundreds of thousands of people who devote ridiculous amounts of their attention to making the absolute most they possibly can from out of trading in the stock market have collectively set the price of the market at exactly its price… just a moment…. NOW!
If I only knew one thing I’d be part of the 0.01%. That thing: which set of convinced people are correct — the ones that are buying or the ones that are selling.
409, your equation is missing a critical component: expectation. For the first time, in a long time, I agree with Mitch. The right price is whatever somebody is willing to pay at that time. So if everybody knows the market is overpriced and they keep buying, well you know the story of the fool and their money. Why do they keep buying? Expectation. Probably greed, too. You don’t mind making a little money off of greedy people, do you?
Unlike the idle rich, I work too hard for my money to gamble with it and can’t afford even an occasional loss, just like most working class people.
Well, enjoy your poverty. You will never accumulate wealth without equity in something that makes money while you are not working. You say you can’t afford an occasional loss, but that do you think is happening when you put money in your savings account? The bank loans out your money and pays you a fraction of what they are getting. A company borrows that money and uses it to generate income for the owners, paying the bank – and you by extension – a fraction of what they are making. They are using your money and everybody is making money but you. Cut out the middle man and buy stock in the company directly so you are the one getting paid.
I don’t want to invest in companies whose only motive is greater profit, putting the people who pay my “wages” out of work so they can pay huge executive salaries and a little more to shareowners. It isn’t good for our country.
Who said to do that? There are plenty of companies that pay their people well, provide a good product or service, and make lots of money for shareholders.
You are buying a line of crap that will keep you poor. Buy a mutual fund or something that is highly diversified if your scared. Good luck.
There’s a wide spectrum being rich and poor. Those who have enough to meet their particular needs and are happy about it are richer in what counts than billionaires who can never be satisfied.
You know any billionaires that you are basing that on? Another line of crap to hold people down. Wealthy people aren’t as happy as poor people. OK….right.
Keep thinking that when you have an unexpected medical problem or a big opportunity comes up. “Man, I’m glad I only made enough to get by!”
24,
Do you think there is any level of personal wealth beyond which someone will not get happier with more goods? Do you think a society would have any chance of picking a number that would safely apply to all mentally healthy individuals?
Anon 418,
Do you think there are any companies whose shares are available on a public market that meet the description given by 24 at #419?
Mitch,
I would imagine once you have enough to live comfortably and not worry about retirement, kids college, or medical bills, the amount on the amount of happiness wealth brings levels off. After that, it is basically a scoreboard. You assume wealth is about buying goods, you ought to read “the millionaire next door” for an interesting take on that.
24,
No, I basically agree it becomes a scoreboard.
Where we differ, most likely, is that I think once a group’s wealth has become a scoreboard, a sensible society will find ways to make use of the wealth by heavily taxing it, so that it can be diverted to solving some of the enormous problems society faces, rather than to the goal of altering the scoreboard stats. Even and heavy taxation of scoreboard wealth allows the scoreboard struggle to continue, while making use of badly needed resources that are not otherwise increasing the happiness of the society, or decreasing its suffering.
Meanwhile… http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Major-climate-changes-looming-4227943.php If only some scientist or someone in the media had been able to warn people, but none of us knew!
Private property, Mitch. I don’t think the government should be taking people’s property because they feel there are better uses. I think there is something in the constitution about that.
Yes. I expected we’d disagree. While I think respect for private property is important, I think it becomes outweighed by other concerns once thresholds have been passed.
We probably agree even about that, but disagree about the thresholds.
I’d imagine you’d have no problem with the state, even if it couldn’t afford it, taking money from its sole wealthholder to feed people who would otherwise starve, if that wealthholder had already met the conditions you describe. Before anyone complains, that’s obviously an extreme case, just to establish that you, too, don’t see private property as inviolable.
A few quotes from B. Franklin
Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.
Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.
He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.
There undoubtedly are, Mitch, but the system is too corrupt to trust it. Why do you have such a problem with people who are satisfied with their level of wealth and want the same for everyone? Why would my buying shares from the previous owner do anything to help the workers who use my services be better able to afford them? Their workers might benefit from increased demand for their products but they gain nothing from a higher share price. I’m not surprised that you were “headhunted” by Wall Street since you seem to have that mentality.
Anon,
I don’t have a problem with those who are satisfied with their level of wealth. I do have a problem with those who want the same for everyone, because I think people vary from one another and will have their own reasons for feeling they need different amounts of things. Within limits, I think it’s vital that people have their own autonomy, and not need to follow the dictates of a group that thinks it knows better what’s good for everyone.
We agree that the system is corrupt, and I certainly don’t feel Wall Street is functioning well. But I also feel that the corruption you see on Wall Street is perfectly capable of creeping into redistributive governments as well. I feel it’s already landed in our government and essentially suffocated large parts of it. So I’m always confused by people who think the government will solve the corruption problem. What they generally mean, I think, is that if the government met my fantasy of what it could be, things would be great.
I think the founders really knew what they were doing, and separation of powers has proven to be about the best corrective humanity has come up with to date. As particular private enterprises have become hugely powerful, I think the government needs the strength to fight back. But I’m not particularly hopeful that such strength won’t be as abused by the government as it is by the corporations.
It’s a real problem, a systems problem, and it’s not clear that there are any short term solutions. Long term, the solution is for the goodness in people to win out over the evil in people, but that doesn’t make a very good policy platform, I agree.
In answer to your question about what effect buying your shares from the previous owner would have, I agree it’s a subtle question. The answer is that the stock market is the system we use (for better or worse) for allocating private resources to different forms of production, once production reaches a scale larger than, for example, a small retail business or crafts cooperative.
True, it’s only in IPOs that your money would go directly to a particular form of production, but the IPOs are dependent on people’s beliefs that the next buyer exists, and will pay more as the company establishes its value. By purchasing shares in companies that contribute to society in ways you like, you are having a microscopic effect on resource allocation, just as you do when voting. The difference is that the microscopic contribution each vote makes is to an ultimately non-linear system that will fall into one of two election results, while the microscopic contribution each stock purchase makes has a relatively proportional effect on resource allocation, and therefore matters in every situation.
When people divorce stock purchases from moral goals, seeking only higher profit, they are falling into the trap that Chris Hedges describes fantastically in the Bill Moyers interview on another thread. I’d guess that the vast majority of stock purchases are driven primarily by the search for higher profit, and it’s torn our society to shreds. That doesn’t mean that owning stocks is inherently immoral, at least in my opinion.
“I don’t have a problem with those who are satisfied with their level of wealth. I do have a problem with those who want the same for everyone, because I think people vary from one another and will have their own reasons for feeling they need different amounts of things.”
I didn’t say that everyone should be satisfied with the same amount, just that I am satisfied and wish for others to be so as well. That says nothing about what level of wealth should satisfy them; but you know, as well as I do, that there some people who can’t be satisfied because they are poor in spirit and the wealth of Midas won’t change that.
Absolutely. That’s why I support the idea of imposing high tax levels on extremely high levels of wealth relative to those in the bottom third of society. I’m sure people will disagree on the numbers, but I’d have no problem with a 90% or higher tax rate on any income above $1 million per year, or a regular annual wealth tax of a percent or two on accumulated wealth in excess of $10 million. As the minimum wage goes up, I think the thresholds on tax rates should go up as well. So, for example, once the minimum wage doubled, the threshold for the very high tax rate would become $2 million per year.
Such a magnanimous gesture Mitch, allowing the high earners to keep 10 % of what they earn. As if that’s not enough, further tax annually a person’s savings which has already been taxed once. Not happy just taxing their dividends and capital gains?? Socialist libtards always with their hands out for someone elses money. Pathetic.
Not you, JW. I’d tax your income over $1 million at 99%, because you’ve been too cheap to bid on the naming rights for the Herald.
I am with Mitch on this one, we probably all are.
My favorite “Conservative” was Eisenhower,
maybe we could revert to those rates that
were enforced under that Republican.
This is why,
How about the fair tax? Eliminate the income tax and tax consumption instead. Rich folks would pay more because they spend more. When Kerry buys another yacht he would automatically pay more taxes. Every citizen would get a pre-bate check each month to the poverty level. Your paycheck would 100% of your pay. You would have the power to spend the money you earn the way you want. The fair tax would be a National sales tax ONLY for the federal level. No tax on investments, savings, or dividends, money from the world would flow into the United States. There would be no need for off shore tax haven by Americans.
The K Street lobbyists in DC would need to get real jobs instead of bribing congressmen. The harder you worked the more money you keep, not the government.
Taxing consumption is one of the most regressive means to raise government revenue because poor people have spend everything they earn to live while the richer you are, the smaller percent of income you need to spend despite spending so much more money. That’s why the rich and idiots love it. We need steeply progressive tax rates and a limit on deductions. I would go with Mitch’s plan.
And I would set inheritance taxes at the same levels. If you are inheriting a million, you pay taxes on it just as if it was earned in a paycheck even though it was a gift.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
The problem with unregulated capitalism is eventually one person owns all the money.
Using the term “fair” in relation to taxes is meaningless. Our tax rates and deductions should be decided based on what works best for the economy as a whole, not some arbitrary definition of what is fair. Those who increase their own salaries to extreme levels while starving the communities’ working classes of employment and infrastructure funding, and especially those who force their employees onto the public dole, should pay the a very price for their insatiable greed. They can compete for which one makes the most money if they want, but allowing them to amass greater wealth is dangerous to our country and our economy.
should pay a very dear price
You missed the “pre-bate” provision of the Fair Tax plan. Every citizen gets a monthly check to cover the poverty level, or basic needs of the individual or family. The playing field is level. As demonstrated by a few posts some wish to use the police power of the government to punish people that are “too fortunate” or “too lucky” to have more of anything than themselves.
HUUFC, 9 Trillion dollars missing.
You call the beneficiaries “too lucky” or “too fortunate.”
I call it theft.
Do you really think our economy functions well when over 90% of the wealth is concentrated at the very top HUFFC?
I rather agree with HUUFC’s proposal, roughly as he or she has stated it. Provide every person (not citizen, because citizenship has nothing to do with human worth) with a guarantee of safe housing, sufficient food, medical care to maintain health, and an opportunity to obtain an education. Once you do that, it’s really none of anyone’s business how much anyone else accumulates, as long as they aren’t allowed to use their accumulated wealth to undermine the system politically.
The problem if you base things on just American citizens being supported at the poverty level becomes what to do about the world of non-citizens, which probably accounts for 95% of humanity, and which loses out when unlimited wealth accumulates. But certainly HUUFC’s suggestion would give us a better country than what we have now.
There are regulations on Capitalism…..it’s called the tax code. You may have heard that the top rate just went up. I realize that you’re disappointed that the government doesn’t get ALL of the top earners income, but the takers can’t get everything from the makers, or no one would ever work.
Why do you think I left you a percent, JW, and didn’t demand 100% of your income? You need incentive to work, or you’ll slack off.
Slam on the brakes. Sloooww down. I mean citizen, illegals get nothing. And no providing every person with anything except the prebate. People have the obligation to run their own lives, not some government bureaucrat. Think of how well the indians on the reservations are doing with the government providing everything. (prebate is the proper term in “The FairTax Book”.)
HUUFC…… read Mitch’s post again. He wants the wealthy in the US to pay for raising everyone in the WORLD above the poverty line. He’s a very generous guy when spending other people’s money. Here’s a suggestion Mitch: go find one of those homeless folks on your downtown streets and invite him to live with you. Giving starts at home !!
Gosh, HUUFC, here I’d thought we’d found common ground. What is it about being born in the geographical region controlled by the United States government that makes someone worthy of your largesse?
Where do you find the largest percentages of takers?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/28/1182791/-When-GOP-complains-about-takers-vs-makers-they-re-complaining-about-their-own-base
Anon…….I appreciate you confirming that the Republican Party is more for the good of the country before the good of partisan politics. Dead beats come in all sizes,shapes and colors. Thank you.
I guess JW #450 has comprehension problems.
Think education is expensive? Price this level of ignorance.
You are not being generous when you say you want to raise other people’s taxes to pay for more benefits for you and your friends. You are being a thief.
There is a huge difference between a higher income person thinking he is already paying too much in taxes and a poor person who wants more benefits. Their motives are not equal.
One person just wants to keep more of his own money. That poor person wants to take somebody else’s money away by force & put it in their own pockets.
Anonymouse is exactly correct, and offers an excellent example of how the legal system is not necessarily just.
Make a fortune by running an industry that externalizes costs onto powerless communities, and you legally become wealthy. You can proudly complain about the 47% of takers and, by contributing to pet politicians, you get your words listened to and your political desires catered to.
Be a member of a powerless community and ask the wealthy person to pay for emergency food supplies when, say, your natural food supply has been depleted by industry, and you are called a thief. Try to take by force some of what was stolen from you, and the police will haul you off and the judges will send you to prison.
It makes a person wonder about what connection there is between authority and morality.
see my comment at 7:30. so rather than encourage people to buy their own stock, you just want the government to take it? no thanks.
I think we mainly disagree that the government is efficient at allocating resources. There needs to be safety nets, but we should all contribute to those and just because one person works longer, harder, gets lucky, or decides to invest or save their money instead of spend it, they should not be punished, no matter how much they accumulate.
24,
Where we disagree, in my opinion, is that you believe progressive taxation is punishment. I believe progressive taxation is a method people have come up with in an attempt to maximize happiness and minimize suffering. We agree that nothing humanity comes up with is perfect.
progressive taxation is fine, it is just when the government is keeping a larger piece of the pie than the person who made it, I have a problem. the wealth will keep accumulating at the top if the attitude of the middle and lower class is that owning stocks, bonds, and real estate is a bad thing.
24, We have been robbed, and it was not the government
that ripped us off. The thieves are Wall
Street and bankers while you seem to be saying the working class will not
be secure until they become part of the theft class.
Audit the Fed.
24,
First, the wealth will ALWAYS accumulate at the top. The more you have, the more risk-tolerant you can be, because it’s easier for a rational person to gamble with their eleventh million than to gamble with next week’s grocery money. So there has to be a redistributive mechanism of some sort, or capitalism always leads to a single winner with everyone else leaving the table. And that’s leaving capture of the political system to the side, though it vastly accelerates the process.
Second, to talk about the government keeping more of the pie than the person who made it offers some emotional appeal — “how dare they take more than they leave Mr. Galt!” But once you’re looking at incomes beyond $1 million annually, in a society where large swaths of people are effectively turned into peasants (check out the Bill Moyers interview with Chris Hedges), the only moral thing for a society to do is to redistribute from pathological scoreboard watchers to people in need. Might that redistribution be suboptimal, due to government being filled with useless people in addition to useful ones? I’ll go farther: it WILL be. But it will be better than what exists in its absence.
All my opinion, of course, but it makes some people happier when I tack that on.
Dan,
I am saying the if the working class had more control over the means of production than their labor, they would be better off. I have stock, I have not stolen anything from anybody.
Mitch,
I agree it is tough to gamble the grocery money. How about the cigarette money, the second car, or the flatscreen TV money? There are lots of people who can’t seem to separate wants from needs. Those people can afford something for investing, but they choose not to. There is no immediate payoff. Rather than blowing money on junk, we should be teaching our citizens how to become owners and investors. With the attitude that if you own stocks, you are crooked, the middle class is doomed to whatever their labor fetches. What is wrong with owning a piece of the production? It is nice to get dividend checks.
I know somebody with a $700 car payment who complains about their health insurance premiums. They think the insurance company is ripping them off, but somehow Apple and Volvo are not.
As to taking the second million, I just can’t go with that. I can’t get my mind around feeling entitled to somebody else’s property.
24,
I understand. We don’t see things in quite the same way, but I do understand your point of view. Thanks for the civil discussion.
Wealth will accumulate at the top because people who work harder, work smarter and invest will generally accumulate more wealth over time.
Then there are the people who don’t want to work hard, who aren’t smart and live for today instead of saving. Should this group be rewarded by taking money away from the first group?
The Times-Standard reports: Jack Crider [Harbor District CEO] “said he still hasn’t given up on plans to develop a proposed 65-space RV park on Startare Drive, the main access road to Woodley Island. In addition to RV parking, the site would include landscaping, a play area, and a dog area.”
Wait! WHAT??? A DOG AREA??? Right across from the reserve for endangered water birds??? What in hell is Crider thinking???
Oh, yeah. He’s thinking about the money, not the enviromental beauty that draws people from all over the world to see our little slice of paradise.
A dog park on Woodley Island is a supremely stupid idea. I mean really. Which would you rather have on Woodley Island? Egrets and Blue Herons or dogs?
Dogs have been banned from Woodley Island for decades until the present day. Because if dogs are allowed on Woodley Island, they will certainly chase out the birds.
All it would take would be a few dog-owners to let their darling dogs off the leash to ruin decades of good environmental work.
24, The L-Curve @ # 432.
“Money works much more efficiently than labor,
in making money.”
Look on the curve and see where our money supply is,
now please tell us how that is suppose to work.
Now imagine a bell-curve, this would be what we call
‘middle class’ who now has the money, spending,
turning it over each time to be assessed for taxes,
voila, the system works, hey almost by design eh?
Gee before you know it kids have decent schools to attend,
there is money to care for the elderly, there is help for the needy.
John Kenneth Galbraith or Alan(Ayn Rand)Greenspan-
your call.
so is their any reason why a serial arsonist and vigilante can run around destroy peoples property and lively hoods, (and get patted on the back for it) in southern Humboldt; but i cant sleep at night with out constant harassment.
in Humboldt county
Evil = sleeping > Arson
Dan,
I disagree with your idea that kids don’t have decent schools, there is not money to care for the elderly, and no help for the needy.
It appears you advocate for middle class consumerism rather than investment. I think that is one of the major problems we face right now.
What happened to the Humboldt Mirror? Last post was December 5, what the heck?
That was HUUFC
Today’s T-S has a short article about obamacare or somebodyelsepayforitcare. The laws enacted by the imperial federal government that take effect in 2014 will result in another 7000 people in Humboldt County becoming eligible for Medi-Cal. Paying for the coverage will fall on the county or state governments. Get ready, obummer is just getting started.
Here’s a great summary of how wrong the minority activist sheriffs are who think they can ignore federal gun control legislation:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423308/january-29-2013/gun-control—state-sovereignty—cliff-sloan
Let’s see here…..there are federal laws against marijuana, yet some states don’t enforce them, some going so far as to pass their own laws saying it’s legal. Hmmmmm…….
Rest in peace Humboldt Herald.
What about the Herald getting back to its Eureka roots?
Post a few YouTubes from 2010 of Brady, C. Arkley, etc telling us how we need to clean up the Balloon Track NOW!
Then wait for the sheep to tell us how economic conditions have changed, blah, blah, blah – and that not cleaning up the Balloon Track (NOW) is different. …even though unemployment was higher in 2010, the stock market was much lower, and the country was still coming out of a recession (technically ended by 2010).
Funny how these people were doing back flips and passing initiatives because cleaning up the BT required immediate action. As Marion Brady said in several (2010) campaign rallies, “we need to start with cleaning up the Balloon Track . So, an unattended Balloon Track (NOW) is every bit as much Arkley’s fault now as it was the old City Council’s in 2010.
Discuss.
Anonymous #473 You are right, I’d go a step further.
Wetlands health was the pivotal motivation.
We had agencies from fed to state to weigh-in,
(responsible parties). We had Baywatchers keeping
a steady eye. Net result? BT as neglected as ever,
a mere canard to keep all eyes focused on BT while the
coastal dune wetlands were being desertified.
massive loss of wetland function means massive loss of
resilience which translates to massive wildlife loss,
FEMA/NOAA sanctions, probation and higher insurance rates.
There was a time when California was the cutting-edge
in coastal science, now we need the folks at FEMA/NOAA
to come and bail us out. If we are not embarrassed,
it is due to not paying attention.
Mitch’s censor is deleting posts about censorship from the censorship thread. He’s created a monster who is destroying the Herald, probably deliberately.
Australian economists are honest: “”The Reserve Bank employs numbers of people on very high pay and what they’re admitting now is that their – all of this so-called science – has produced nothing more than what a roll of the dice could produce.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-04/economic-forecasts-no-better-than-a-random-walk/4499098
An Afrikaner’s approach to censorship in the era of apartheid.
“Four Jacks and a Jill are South African. A Master Jack is the leader of a crew in the gold mines. The song is a subtle anti-apartheid song. A Jack is always white and the crew was always black. Under white minority rule, blacks did not enjoy the fruits of their labor, thus the colored ribbon that ties up all the problems of white supremacy that the nation bought into, as well as the world. ”
And here all these years I thought that song was about a woman leaving her domineering boyfriend.
Fortunately the child is safe and there will be no trial for the murderer and kidnapper in Alabama. Unfortunately some lawyer will probably file an unlawful death or a civil rights lawsuit on his behalf.
2 – 8.0 earthquakes in the Santa Cruz Islands 1 minute apart.
I stopped “feeding” tips to the HH because Heraldo departed and I do not want to help out a Blog which is no longer focused on Humboldt County and censors so many voices. I suspect many others who gave “tips” to Heraldo also do not send stories to the new régime.
I miss the local flavor too. Too bad but the Humboldt Sentinal is doing a nice job.
Or maybe you were afraid the local authorities would find out you were leaking classified Brown Act materials?
#483 “….classified Brown Act materials?”
I thought the Brown Act was about ‘sunshine.’
“”In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”
Read more: http://www.sunshinereview.org/index.php/California_Open_Meeting_Act#ixzz2KQpBemKX
Do you not understand Dan, that certain matters are closed session items only under the Brown Act?
I do now. Thank you.
Saturday a bomb blast in Quetta Pakistan kills at least 84 and injures at least 200 more. Sunni Muslim vs Shi’ite Muslim, peace lovers all around.
How did they kill that many without an assault weapon??
A BOMB, idiot.
But gee, all of the gun control advocates make it seem like you need an assault weapon to be a mass murderer??
BTW I saw Zero Dark Thirty last night. Great movie all should see it.
No, but they do seem to be a popular choice for these mass killings.
Personally, I doubt banning “assault rifles” will really lower the death toll in such incidents. But I do think that limiting the size of ammunition clips is an idea worth considering. That does seem like it might save some lives when one of these murderous cowards / homicidal maniacs goes on a rampage.
Yeah, it doesn’t take all that long to change clips — but it does take at least a couple seconds, and sometimes that couple of seconds can be enough for people to tackle and disarm (or for that matter, shoot) the would-be mass killer. That’s why so many of these mass shooters choose to use these high-capacity clips — they want to be able to kill lots of people, real fast, with minimal interruption. I’d rather they didn’t have the option of a legally-obtained 30-round clip. Yeah, maybe they could get it on the black market, but in many (most?) of the recent mass shootings, the weapons were taken from a legally-purchased cache of weapons owned by a family member or other person known by the killer.
Which brings me to my final point — in my opinion, a sizeable portion of the blame for the recent Sandy Hook school massacre falls on the shooter’s mother, for leaving a huge stash of powerful firearms and ammunition in an unlocked closet, in the home where her troubled child was living. Of course she was his first victim, so there’s no way to prosecute her…and anyway, if the threat of being murdered with your own guns is not incentive enough to lock them up, it’s not clear to me that the threat of prosecution would make much difference. But I am surprised how little attention has been given to the fact that the mother’s negligence in failing to secure her firearms is what allowed the killer to so easily obtain the murder weapons in the first place.
I guess maybe it’s just considered rude to point that out, since the poor woman is dead? Maybe so, but I’d rather we run the risk of “speaking ill of the dead” if that’s what’s necessary to encourage gun owners to be more careful in storing their guns. After all, that would save LOTS of lives, not just in the mass shootings, but also in the much-more-common cases where kids are accidentally killed when handling the unsecured guns they find in their home, where the unsecured guns are used in a crime of passion by one member of the household against another, and where the unsecured guns are stolen and later used in crimes.
An idea for a thread. What do people think?
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
What horse-crap. Obama socialism, crack me up.
The Prof’s students knew Obama was no more a socialist
than Nixon, and not nearly the ‘socialist’ Eisenhower.
Banksterism is not socialism.
Just more adolescent fantasy from the florida tea tard, cut and pasted from the Free Republic site. More Freeper teen wanker stuff. Sure it makes sense if you are 15 years old.
The real world looks nothing like this, neither in the school system nor the economy.
Just Watchin contributes less than nothibng to these discussions.
Give him credit for making you articulate why his beliefs are so wrong and in discussions inform each other and readers who don’t post. There are lots of them. If Just Watchin didn’t exist you would need a devil’s advocate to present the right’s views for debate and who wants to sacrifice the time to watch/listen/read the right wing propaganda machine to get their talking points every day?
No. JW is contributing to the destruction of the conversation here far more effectively than any “devil’s advocate ” can. I am being kind but whoever is running this blog does not have a firm grip on the concept of what a troll does. A trolls goal is not to win debate. A trolls goal is to destroy the conversation. JW does that. JW is a troll because JW is constantly diverting the conversation away from local Humboldt issues. JW doesn’t care if he wins the debate or not. JW just wants to destroy or divert the most popular left discussion in Humboldt. Thats his goal.
Let’s see, if I have $1,000, see, and I divide it by (.5) OR (1/2 in fractional notation) then I have $2,000. See?
So I can multiply wealth by dividing it I guess I am special.
“4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!”
have a peaceful day,
Bill
“Know your enemy.” Sun Tzu
I’d rather the enemy tell me what he thinks than have to spend the time researching their media to find out. Wing nuts of any stripe try to use diversion, so what? In a face to face conversations only one voice can be heard at a time. On blogs there can be many conversations going on at the same time. One cannot interrupt or yell to drown out other voices. No one has to read or respond to diversionary posts.
” ….. and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.”
Max Ehrmann
WOW……libtards really getting their granny panties in a bunch!! The truth really gets to the “takers”.
I’m guessing you represent the half that think they don’t have to work, Dan. FREE STUFF FOR EVERYONE!!
Sorry to interupt your back slappin, like minded, mutual admiration society of libtards with facts, JJ. They do tend to disrupt “left discussions”.
Every one of your beliefs has been thoroughly debunked, righteously ridiculed, insulted and profaned yet you persist in claiming victory, Just Watchin. Your mind (such as it is) not being changed is not victory. You provide the right wing view here and give the rest the opportunity to refute it, which they do quite handily. Thank you for doing your part.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money…..
The problem with tea tard wankers is they eventually run out of dumb ideas gleaned from that witling Sean Hannitty
You people sure seem to like the word”wanker”. Is that from experience?? And by the way, as I’ve said before……you people really crack me up!!
I made a post, and asked for comments, and was immediately and personally attacked. I set the trap and you all fell for it. You want to see a troll?……look in the mirror.
Right wing delusion on parade daily at the Herald. See it exposed by rational debate from numerous perspectives. Watch the Watcher claim victory when his beliefs are soundly refuted logically, demonstrating how deeply delusional he is. A liberal playing devil’s advocate couldn’t do it with the authenticity of a true believer.
There was no debate, just an immediate attack. And who can take anyone serious that hides hehind the “Anonymous” name. Get creative…..make up a name!! What are you afraid of ?
Last Thursday gasoline at Costco was $4.00, Tuesday it was $4.15. I’ll let you know about today.
There was no debate, just an immediate attack. And who can take anyone serious that hides hehind the “Anonymous” name. Get creative…..make up a name!! What are you afraid of ?
You apparently.
10.34am on a Thursday, really? Shouldn’t you be in class or did you post during recess?
JJ…..I thought I recognized your writing style, and it just hit me……It” BJ!! ( Plain Jane for any of you newbies). Almost didn’t recognize you without the usual “wife beating and leg humping” references. I knew you couldn’t stay away. I’m guessing the JJ stands for “just Jane”. Welcome back BJ!!
Everyone who points out your BS isn’t PJ. A child could do it. Your obsession continues.
And this bit of wisdom from someone hiding behind an Anonymous name.
From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/pope-retired-amid-gay-bishop-blackmail-inquiry
You are anonymous too Just Watchin. Hypocrisy is a serious problem for you.
Eureka Planing Commission Unanimously Approved Westside Community Improvement Association’s Mitigated Negative Declaration of Environmental Impact and Conditional Use Permit Last Night. Mike Jone vote was a WOW! The Planning Commission gave accolades to Manhard Consulting for a flawless Initial Study and congratulated Westside Community Improvement Association’s Board for all their hard work. It was an awesome night. Please look at the rendering of the plans for the site at
http://www.facebook.com/Jefferson.Project
Congratulations on a job well done Heidi.
THE TROLLS ARE OBVIOUS. JW IS A TROLL. I AM A TROLL. YOU ALL FAIL BECAUSE TOMORROW THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED AGAIN. MOST OF YOU ARE COMPLACENT INTERNET ADDICTS.
I worked at a warehouse stocking shelves. Somebody began stealing inventory. The boss knew who was stealing inventory. Instead of firing the person who was stealing inventory, the boss imposed rules of conduct that treated us all as though we were all stealing inventory. The boss even sat the entire warehouse crew down, which included the thief, and explained the strict new rules that we all had to abide by. Coat checks, lunch restrictions, brake mandates, etc. The entire time, everybody in the warehouse was clueless as to why our cake job had instantly become lame. We didn’t know, as the boss later admitted to knowing, that “X” was the thief. The boss didn’t care, we were all just disposable warehouse employees, and even after “X” quit, rather than being fired as he should have been, the strict rules of conduct remained. I really miss that job…but it would have gone nowhere anyway, the boss basically told me I was an idiot when I told him he was buying more inventory than he could ever sell, and that the dot-com bubble was going to burst exactly as it did a year and a half later.
I’m so smart or UR SO STOOPID?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
The county has been forced to finally start telling us how much money they’re spending on litigation.
http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_22638916/county-will-release-records-following-high-court-decision?source=rss
Some good news
“Buried on the business page of mysanantonio.com today, so brief you could easily have missed it, was the news that Clear Channel Media Holdings just reported losses for the last quarter of 2012 of $191 million, and $424 million for all of 2012.
Clear Channel has been in trouble for a long time for a variety of reasons, but one factor that contributed to their losses in 2012 was the death spiral of their golden boy radio host Rush Limbaugh.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/20/1188686/-Clear-Channel-Loses-424-Million-in-2012-StopRush-Rolls-On#
And equally buried is the liberal darling Paul Krugman, finally admitting that there will be death panels and new taxes on the middle class to pay for Obamacare…..
http://thebrennerbrief.com/2013/02/07/caught-on-tape-paul-krugman-death-panels-and-sales-taxes-is-how-we-do-this/
The buried Nobel Prize winning economist also said this,
“I said something deliberately provocative on This Week, so I think I’d better clarify what I meant (which I did on the show, but it can’t hurt to say it again.)
So, what I said is that the eventual resolution of the deficit problem both will and should rely on “death panels and sales taxes”. What I meant is that
(a) health care costs will have to be controlled, which will surely require having Medicare and Medicaid decide what they’re willing to pay for — not really death panels, of course, but consideration of medical effectiveness and, at some point, how much we’re willing to spend for extreme care
(b) we’ll need more revenue — several percent of GDP — which might most plausibly come from a value-added tax
And if we do those two things, we’re most of the way toward a sustainable budget.
By the way, I’ve said this before.
Now, you may declare that this is politically impossible. But medical costs must be controlled somehow, or nothing works. And is a modest VAT really so much more implausible than ending the mortgage interest deduction?
So that’s my plan. And I believe that some day — maybe in the first Chelsea Clinton administration — it will actually happen.”
————————————————-
Just Watchin, try reading.
Beautiful day.
Dan
Dan…..he said that on This Week over two years ago. The video in my link is from last week. Just trying to keep things current, but feel free to go back as far as you want, but stop when you start seeing evidence that the world is not flat. In regards to the video……Dan, try watching.
So Just Watchin is saying that Krugman has been saying the same thing for at least 2 years and clarified what he meant by “death panels” and “sales taxes” long before this video was posted at You Tube. How JW knows when that video was made is unclear. The date it was posted on You Tube is not necessarily the date of Krugman’s speech.
The speech was on Jan. 30th. Apparently, the video just came out recently.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/clay-waters/2013/02/05/kooky-paul-krugman-calls-death-panels-cut-health-care-costs-really
Getting hysterical over “death panels” to set economically sensible guidelines for what Medicare will and won’t cover based on sound medical evidence is fearmongering the elderly, political pandering to the right wing and pay back to the medical industry.
Especially considering that the insurance industry has always had real death panels which refuse effective treatment and medication to their customers and let them die when they become too expensive.
Spoken like somebody who works for the government and has no understanding of the private sector.
The insurance companies have to compete with the other insurance companies for our business. They have to convince customers they either offer better service or better prices.
Once the government takes over the health insurance field, and it is only a matter of time, they will no longer even pretend to care what the hell you think or want. Have you been to the DMV lately? Before FedEX the Post Office treated you like dirt also.
Why is no one posting on the “Humboldt Heraldo 2″?
The health insurance industry has been screwing the customers and the country over since their beginning. They cheat us, lie to us and let us die for profit. They’ve got most of our health care dollars running through their fingers and they take a big portion without providing any health care. Their political contributions (and Wall Street) keep us tied to them instead of what we need, single payer. Competition between insurance companies? Try changing insurance companies with a pre-existing condition, most everyone who has ever had a problem with their insurance company has a serious pre-existing condition. That’s when they realized they were being cheated and lied to. They are worse than any government agency which has to follow clear cut rules, where the civil servants don’t get bonuses for cheating or delaying you. The DMV and post office would provide much faster service if all of those vacant windows were open, but you probably wouldn’t like paying all those salaries. It’s such typically right wing thinking: cut the funding, bitch about the decline in quality and push privatization so you can get a bite of the profits.
USPS 1 ounce letter, delivered within 3 days most places, 46 cents.
UPS 1 ounce to 1 pound, 3 day delivery $1.22.
Anonymous #535, You must be a complete shut in or a government employee to have made that post.
“Try changing insurance companies with a pre-existing condition” Don’t you read the news at all?
“government agency which has to follow clear cut rules” LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“were the civil servants don’t get bonuses for cheating or delaying you” Maybe, maybe not. But neither do they get bonuses for helping you or delaying their mandatory coffee breaks. Incompetant or uncaring civil servants can’t be fired. Jesus man, don’t you ever go to the Post Office or DMV, the County Tax Assessor’s office, the IRS, the Health department or the freaking Planning department????
Fed UP #537
Are you defending private health-insurance,
as we know it today, against a single-payer,
universal care program?
Yes, I read the news – daily. Insurance companies can’t deny coverage for pre-existing conditions NOW, under new health care insurance rules, but haven’t you read the news about how they have been jacking up their rates?
So you want to pay for all those vacant windows to be filled with workers at the Post Office, the DMV etc, Fed Up? When there are too few employees to serve customers in a timely manner, do you blame the servers or the people who make the decisions on how many are needed? I have never been a government employee and I have to deal with the same crap everyone else has to deal with. I don’t like that the number of govt. employees has been cut to below what is needed to keep the customers happy. I don’t like that a majority in congress is trying to bankrupt the post office with unreasonable pension funding demands to help their campaign donors who want all the mail privatized. I don’t like that state and local governments have had to lay off millions of workers (whose loss of income hit their families and local communities like a sledgehammer) at a time when private hiring is sluggish at best adding to the previous millions of unemployed with no job prospects and demands for social programs increasing. That you support the agenda that caused this mess and bitch about how much it costs to keep people alive until it gets better is disgusting.
UPS CEO made 9.5 million in 2011.
Post Master General made $400,000.
And how many billion did UPS lose lastyear??? What a stupid comparison.
Top Catholic in the United Kingdom may be yet another anti-gay abusive closet-case:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-inappropriate
In 2006 Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which required the USPS to prefund it’s retiree health care benefits for the next 50 years. No private company, and no other governmental agency, is required to do that. All others are pay as you go. That fund comes out to $75 billion dollars to be funded in a 10 year span. If you take out that $7.5 billion a year payment the USPS has actually been in the black every year since 1982.
Google dot com
OK, take 2…
G to google, dangit
GO TO GOOGLE, STUPID THING!
Unfunded retiree health care costs are a ticking time bomb that threaten our children’s generation. Kudos to Congress for forcing the USPS for manning up to the problem. Now Congress show make the other government agencies do the same.
Top Cardinal in the UK — yet another homosexual in the Catholic hierarchy hiding behind anti-gay rhetoric — resigns. There are few people lower than these men.
http://petertatchellfoundation.org/religion/cardinal-obrien-just-tip-catholic-hypocrisy
20 years ago muslim terrorists exploded a bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center killing 6. They were attempting to cause the collapse of one tower hoping it would fall into the next tower. The muslims learned from their experience and destroyed both towers on September 11 2001 murdering almost 3000 Americans in the process.
You’re wasting your time and energy #540. These brainwashed-believers-of-the-billionaires-bovine-scat, will always be against the people. They sold out us out long ago. These are the same guy’s who side with the factory owners against the workers. The same guy’s who think the US Constitution is a Communist manifesto. Sad really, they don’t know which side of the bread their butter is on. Willing dupes of the ruling-class.
Before reading this just say, over and over, “global warming is a liberal fraud…”
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1827.html
Cowboy, how about holding private business to those same standards? Do you think being forced to pre-fund their retirement plans would be good for business? Is it possible that the attempts to bankrupt UPS by forcing 50 years of pre-funding for their retirement plan is to force privatization so campaign donors can make more money? UPS isn’t perfect, but its the only service that picks up and delivers mail to almost every home in the country daily and does it for a fraction of the price of their nearest competitor.
Rep. Keith Ellison takes on the moronic Republican shill Hannity.
A democrat accusing someone of being a fear mongerer. That’s rich. I guess he hasn’t caught the Fear Mongerer In Chief’s act regarding the sequestration.
SHOCKING POLICE BRUTALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Published on Feb 28, 2013
Police watchdog, the IPID, is investigating the death of a Mozambican man at the hands of police in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg. The probe follows a Daily Sun report based on cellphone video footage of a taxi driver being dragged behind a police van.
Thank the Deity (or the Not Deity as you choose), we have Redwood Curtain Copwatch here in Eureka to hold our local LE accountable.
Filming the police is the right of the people. Without knowledge of what is going on in the real world any other of our fundamental liberties are constrained or rendered useless. If the media were doing their jobs there would really be no need for copwatch.
Journalists are one of the few protected classes of people under the Constitution, they need to step up! And there are hopeful signs that some of them are. :)
have a peaceful day,
Bill
News from civilization: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/28/european-union-cap-bankers-bonuses
Excerpt from Krugman today, read the whole thing at the link
“It didn’t seem to matter what evidence critics of the rush to war presented: Anyone who opposed the war was, by definition, a foolish hippie. Remarkably, that judgment didn’t change even after everything the war’s critics predicted came true. Those who cheered on this disastrous venture continued to be regarded as “credible” on national security (why is John McCain still a fixture of the Sunday talk shows?), while those who opposed it remained suspect.
And, even more remarkably, a very similar story has played out over the past three years, this time about economic policy. Back then, all the important people decided that an unrelated war was an appropriate response to a terrorist attack; three years ago, they all decided that fiscal austerity was the appropriate response to an economic crisis caused by runaway bankers, with the supposedly imminent danger from budget deficits playing the role once played by Saddam’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Now, as then, this consensus has seemed impenetrable to counterarguments, no matter how well grounded in evidence. And now, as then, leaders of the consensus continue to be regarded as credible even though they’ve been wrong about everything (why do people keep treating Alan Simpson as a wise man?), while critics of the consensus are regarded as foolish hippies even though all their predictions — about interest rates, about inflation, about the dire effects of austerity — have come true.
So here’s my question: Will it make any difference that Ben Bernanke has now joined the ranks of the hippies?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/opinion/krugman-ben-bernanke-hippie.html?hp&_r=0
It’s amazing, isn’t it, Anonymous. If I still thought there was much reason for hope, I’d be more disturbed by each incremental bit of destruction we pile on ourselves.
As for America, reality has a way of catching up with nations that lose touch with reality. When you not only trash evidence that conflicts with your ideology, but even believe the trashing yourself, you begin to collapse from an inability to appropriately respond to real situations. Stories about the crumbling roads and bridges are being joined by stories of dysfunctional new fighter aircraft. Our computer infrastructure is increasingly revealed as a defense disaster, but the politicians won’t fix it, they’ll just throw money at it. They think throwing money is the same as addressing a problem.
Last time it was box cutters against a trillion dollars. Next thing the trillion dollars won’t prevent may be simultaneous failures of the water supply in a few large cities. At that point, America’s government will change, probably for the worse, and a lot of billionaires are going to wish they’d never, ever, read Ayn Rand.
Another buying opportunity for the only people with piles of cash to invest, the real constituents of the GOP. The masters of the universe will buy up assets, including military industry stock, and then they’ll suddenly start working to pass a budget.
Just watched Obama’s dog and pony show with the press. It takes him 20 minutes to answer a simple question. Uh, uh, er. It’s everybody else’s fault, not mine. If only the Republicans would do what is right, uh, uh, er. The cuts maybe wont hurt right away but I can make sure they do in a few months, uh, uh, er, er.
16.5 trillion dollars in debt, just wait till obamacare hit’s us too. What a liar he is and the slobbering media wont call him on it.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-i-cant-use-jedi-mindmeld-on-congress
THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! Oh wait….we went from “falling off a cliff” to “tumbling downhill”. His lies are catching up with him. Let the sequestration commence!!!
The sequestration is even worse than Barry said it would be, according to Maxine Waters. Y’all must be sooooo proud to have her representing you:http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/341897/maxine-waters-sequester-could-cause-170-million-jobs-be-lost-charles-c-w-cooke
Taunt, bully, type, repeat.
January income in the US down 3.6%, thanks to the middle class tax increase that Barry promised would not happen. Biggest one month drop in 20 years. It will be interesting to see the democrats spin this and say that businesses were gearing up for the sequestration.
There was a sunset of the 2 percent social security contribution, just like the Bush cuts for the wealthy are sunsetting in theory. Maybe if a 2% tax on the payroll of workers has such dire effects for the economy we should eliminate payroll taxes altogether and just shift completely to wealth and income taxes. What do you think Mr. Florida Republican?
{This is my best attempt at civility so far.}
have a peaceful day,
Bill
You may address me as “Humboldt County Libertarian Socialist” in the name of civility.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Yes my Florida Friend, I am somewhat on the outskirts of even liberal Humboldt.
It is said that there are two approaches to achieving change: Pushing from within and pushing from without.
I suppose that I am a pusher from without.
That does not automatically make me an enemy from the pushers from within, but it does bring us into conflict sometimes.
have a peaceful & civil day,
Bill
What tax rate do you think those evil rich should pay Mr Humboldt County Libertarian Socialist?
I think that we should vote on it,. Civil Anonymous.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
You all pushed through the Help America Vote act or whatever it was called that forced elections offices to adopt computerized voting systems.
The technology now exists to put in place a national secure direct electronic voting system (internet voting) that would be far more convenient and secure. Not to mention less expensive than the current mess.
At this point, I am not an advocate. I am just aksing, what do you think? Real pros and cons.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
highboldtage,
I think your statement that “the technology now exists to put in place a national secure direct electronic voting system” is just uninformed. But even if the technology existed, I wouldn’t want to have to depend on the honesty of the people running it, or the fact that the technology hadn’t been compromised.
Anyone who thinks internet voting is a good idea should read this: http://electionlawblog.org/?p=24849
I’m an advocate of paper ballots for all elections, just to be clear.
And it is entrely possible that I am uniformed on internet voting no doubt about that. However my life’s experience tells me it would be easier to build one national platform and have it more secure than our current patchwork of provably insecure and proprietary (secret ) software.
This is an issue of national security and any electronic voting software needs to be open source, robust, and freely available to local governments.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Yes, it is an issue of national security. And yes, the existing provably insecure and proprietary software is a disaster. But at least — and it is definitely “least” — the existing software is not connected to the internet. Internet voting, whether open source or proprietary, would be far worse. Or maybe I should say internet voting WILL be far worse, as I’m as pessimistic about this as about most things political.
As for a national software platform, I think that’s unconstitutional — voting is reserved to the states.
A lot of people, most of whom I disagree with about many things, have devoted a lot of attention to internet voting. It is very dangerous. Read David Jefferson’s essay here for the best summary I’ve seen: http://electionlawblog.org/?p=24849
But aren’t the existing computerized voting systems already connected to the internet? Wasn’t there an incident in Ohio where the data was sent to a data backup center in Tenn and then manipulated or massaged or flipped?
I seem to remember a story on Bradblog about that. That would imply that your internet disaster future is already here. I’ll look into it.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Some parts of some back ends may be networked, in some states. Usually, when it’s discovered and reported, the connection is stated to be eliminated. It’s more likely to be reporting systems than tabulation systems, and it’s never the actual cast-a-vote systems, to my knowledge.
IMO, this is a critically important issue, and the internet voting advocates are just flat out wrong. They are trading convenience — in the hopes of increasing voting rates — against two critical things.
First, they are trading away our right to a verifiable result. No way can I see internet voting as implemented in the real world producing a verifiable vote that the average citizen could, in theory, verify themselves.
Second, they are trading away our right to vote in secret. Of course, we’ve already traded that away for the convenience of no-excuse-needed absentee voting. Anyone can coerce or buy the vote of someone who has received an absentee ballot. No one can effectively coerce the vote of someone who goes to a polling place to vote in private.
How do you feel about sticking to paper ballots, Mitch?
Or you maybe prefer completely locally networked voting machines (essentially tabulators) physically isolated from the net and running open source software? That solution seems reasonable to me but I can’t evaluate it’s practicality.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
After a few years of working on an open-source computerized tabulator, I’ve come to the conclusion that Brad Friedman is correct about paper ballots, hand-counted at the precinct on election night, being the best solution. I think multiple independently-operated software tabulations at the precinct is the next best, but I no longer expect to see that. (I don’t expect to see hand-counting either. I expect instead that we’ll soon all be able to push buttons on our smartphones to think we’ve voted.)
Well is the use of hand counted paper ballots the litmus test of real democracy?
Is their absense a symptom of illegitimacy, of tyranny?
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Hand counting paper ballots has its own problems, some of them serious. In many precincts, it will prove impossible to get honest observers into the precincts. In others, tabulators will bring in pencil lead under their fingertips.
Technically, the best solution is to limit the number of opportunities for *anyone* to touch the ballots, until they’ve been photographed (or scanned) and the photos or scan data are released for public, independent counting by whatever method people wish. The problem is then reduced to confirming that the photos or scans are an honest representation, and that requires an ability for observers to compare the photos with the paper ballots, right at the precinct after it closes, before the paper leaves for anyplace else or is otherwise touched.
Politically and practically, that’s a non-starter.
So what is your vote?
Secure internet voting? There will come a day when we wake up one morning, and banking accounts will be empty, thanks to the internet. No thanks.
It’s a good thing banks aren’t connected to the internet and can’t be hacked, right Watchin?
Banks aren’t connected to the internet? I’m not sure what to make of that comment.
Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer from San Francisco, is running to become the party’s statewide vice chairman.
In a recent posting on Facebook, Dhillon was accused of sympathizing with terrorists by Vera Eyzendooren, president of the San Bernardino County Federation of Republican Women.
“I was told by one of Harmeet’s friends that because of her religion, her loyalty is to the Muslim religion,” wrote Eyzendooren. “So she will defend a Muslim beheading two men without hesitation … she is not Republican.”
Dhillon is a Sikh, who as a child moved to the United States from India.
“In any group of 1,600 delegates, you’re going to have a few crazy people and bigots,” Dhillon told KCRA
Read more: http://www.kcra.com/news/Calif-GOP-leaders-denounce-attack-on-candidate/-/11797728/19158846/-/jghdv1/-/index.html
Just watched the interview with Mitt and Ann Romney on Fox News Sunday. Very nice couple. Too bad he lost the election. They played a clip of one of the debates when Obama said that the sequestration “will not happen”. Funny, guess he misspoke.
Things are going to hell in our country HUUFC. I think one day even Mitch will rue the day Romney didn’t win.
Not that he will ever admit it.
So Hoofsie watches Fox News. Who’da thought?
Obama nominates a Walmart executive as budget director. That has to hurt you Walmart haters!
Everybody should watch Fox News, half of the United States already does, try it, learn something new.
“Everybody should watch Fox News, half of the United States already does, try it, learn something new.”
Yeah, yeah: conglomerate liars declaring how many volunteer liars are attracted to their lies. Which is, or course; a lie.
My taxes went up a lot last year. The rich had their taxes go down. The corps still don’t pay any taxes, and the Sequester had done just what it was intended to do. Screw the Americans out of any services from their government, and of course now they’ve just passed a pass for more “golden-hammers” and “diamond-encrusted” ammunition for the “Defense” dept. The aristocracy of this country is the greatest enemy America has ever had. They’re true traitors to what we were all about. And they’ve still got their little “Traitorlings” mouthing off on the blogs and spreading disinformation like manure.
Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, they’re all laughing their butts off at these “Jews for Hitler,” morons, ensuring their children will receive nothing from the American dream. It’s really that their such cowards they can’t think for themselves. They need the “Great Men” to tell them what to say, who to hate. Their children will work as maids and cashiers; while the children of their masters will become engineers and doctors and lawyers and hedge-fund managers. But that’s ok with them, because in reality they hate their children, like they hate their neighbors, because they hate themselves. This is what their exposure to aristocracy’s media has taught them.
But of course, this has all been said before to no avail. The more of their comments I read, the more I am convinced that the planet itself will not survive the idiocy and self-destruction of their greed.
Do you hear it? 1.2 million WWII veterans are turning over in their graves.
“Well done, good and faithful slave. Now if you’d be so kind as to slit your own throat as a final act of obedience, we here at the club would be most grateful.”
This just in: Obama wants to take all of your guns. Film at 11.
It’s obvious that our leaders in DC (and most state capitols) no longer care what the majority of the people want or need. Every poll of voters compared to their activities in Washington prove it. The tax cuts for the rich diverted money from government coffers into campaign donations, SCOTUS via Citizens United gave them essentially unrestricted shopping privileges and they now own outright enough congressmen, bureaucrats and media pundits that it’s probably impossible to reverse it.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/21917/large/wealth_distribution_perception_reality_540.jpg?1362556515
It’s not the deficit or “entitlements,” it’s the dangerous imbalance in income and total wealth that is at the matrix of all our economic and political woes.
Oh dear, I’ve upset you. What did I post that was not true?
There just was a huge tax increase on the rich Anonymouse # 595.
I have asked Bill many times before and the coward refuses to answer. Now I ask you. What tax rate do you feel the rich should pay?
Excellent question, just how much? I’ve asked it many times and cannot get an answer. Bill O’Reilly cannot even extricate the amount or percentage from the various liberal guests he has. Invariably they revert to the talking points of the need to pay their fair share but never get to the point.
My effective tax rate for 2012 was 10.3% federal and 2.8% state.
Tax rates should be set according to what works best for the country’s economy. Only a fool or a liar would argue that they are correct now or that they should be lower for rich people.
I know this diverts greatly from taxes and slandering politicians, but Comet PanSTARRS will be visible for the first time in the Northern Hemisphere tonight, low on the horizon at sunset.
I’m relatively new to the area, so does anyone know of a good place in Eureka with a view of the horizon, without excessive light pollution? I’m thinking about just heading down kinda behind the Wharfinger building or something, but I’m not sure it’s the best of places, and the only other suggestion I’ve had was the area behind the mall… which doesn’t sound particularly safe or sanitary with all the homeless people camped out doing who-knows-what drugs back there.
This guy might know: http://www.redwoods.edu/departments/astronomy/
There’s a pretty good viewing site up at the top of Berta Road above CR, Comet.
Or at the Park and Ride at the Elk River/Herrick Road turn off.
So, anything in Eureka city limits is pretty much crap, as I suspected. No surprise there, though.
Thanks, anons!
If it was overhead and not low on the horizon, I might suggest someplace like the Del Norte Hill gully (when there are no school events) but what you want to see has special requirements, i.e. seeing the horizon. That means either a high vantage point or on the shore.
There’s always up by the Kneeland Airport.
Just wondering if anyone saw the darn thing (comet) and what they saw?
Relevant: The fastest growing job in America pays poorly. Meet home health care aides.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/11/news/economy/fastest-growing-job/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
I would like to know who in Eureka did not receive their Black Phone Book (Hagadon Directory) this year. I purchased an ad an have had calls from Arcata Mckinleyville, Fortuna Fields Landing and Humboldt Hill but no calls from Eureka, I own a home, 2 businesses and am affiliated with 3 other addresses in Eureka, none of those Eureka addresses received black phone books this year. The folks at the black book say it is coincidence that all their directories were delivered. I would like to know Who Else in Eureka did Not Receive a Black Book delivered to their home or office this year.
Neither my office nor home has received a Black Book in a couple of years. I thought they went out of business.
Maybe the contractors they hire to throw them in your driveway took some shortcuts.
Simplified Bhang – Simple Cannabis Milk Recipe
Posted in Uncategorized with tags bhang, cannabis milk, pot milk on March 11, 2013 by highboldtage
OK Here we go. First of let me say that Bhang is a sacred traditional beverage comprised of milk and cannabis and flavoring ingredients that is consumed in areas of India and south Asia by various sects. As such, there are many traditional recipes which contain ingredients that might be essential to spiritual practice in those regions. I mean no disrespect to those Peoples and cultures by simplifying this recipe for Western use.
I think the future of cannabis is in the edible form, and I don’t like eating that many cookies, so I have been experimenting with other methods of cooking the herb.
I usually make enough to last me two days, which is a quart. I use half and half, as it has a higher butter fat content than regular milk and this aids in the extraction of THC into the milk.
So I start with a quart of 1/2 & 1/2 and I add a pint of water to it (I let it simmer back down to the original volume about twice) and start it to simmer on top of the stove. This should get the milk hot enough to bubble a bit but not boil. I let it simmer for 3 to 5 hours. My friend says that the longer you simmer it the stronger it gets. She may be right, but I can’t prove it at the moment. Probably some of you will be reaching for your food thermometers to find the optimum temperature for this process. I hope you do and when you do come back here and let us know.
Right now I use a handful of decent shake from Sohum to make my bhang. I just guestimate it but it is around a half cup or so, ground rather finely but loosely packed in the cup. This part you will have to guestimate on your own, based upon the quality of your herb and your own tolerance. And of course batches of herb and shake vary in potency and effect from plant to plant. I haven’t tried this with quality bud but I don’t see why it won’t work, just adjust the quantity downward to reflect the increased potency. I haven’t tried it with bud because 1) I’m poor and I can’t afford bud, and 2) I do have some shake from SoHum, its decent Kandy Kush shake.
After 3 to 5 hours and it looks good I will strain it into another pan, let it cool for 10 minutes or so and then stir it good and pour it into two clean peanut butter jars with lids, then into the fridge for tomorrow morning. One pint is enough for me for most of the day without a single toke so I can cut way down on my smoking/vaping.
LIke all edibles, I drink about half first, then wait about an hour to see how I feel.
I did try for a while to add a little butter to the mix to increase the butterfat but the results for me were not agreeable. The butter kind of coagulated when it cooled in the fridge and made it hard to drink. Also I have added bakers cocoa to make it chocolately and that works pretty good, but I kind of like the taste of hemp milk myself. I know some people can’t stand it. Another flavor might be cinnamon, but I haven’t tried it.
No matter what, about ten minutes after you drink some, your tummy says “Thanks!” “That feels good!”
http://wp.me/pbr9G-3DM
Note: Humboldt dairy farmers need to get moooo-ving on this. Its the brand baby.
have a peaceful day, and enjoy it,
Bill
So Bill’s a stoner. I should have guessed.
Bill Holmes, AKA “Highboldtage”. This freakin guy…
THIS is the guy “fighting” for raising the minimum wage… while he drinks marijuana milk and collects SSI (which is taken out of the paychecks of people who DO work). Bill also seems to believe that pot can send him on a ‘spiritual journey’:
(He just saves all that “harmful smoke” for his attempt at collecting more SSI money, since employees who make more get more taken out of their checks.)
Bill wants to push for local dairies to manufacture this gunk… and people still take his fair-wage BS seriously?
This blog is dead.
But when he’s on the fair wage act thread, he’s now posting as “anonymous”. He must have realized that he’s not a very credible spokesperson for their cause. But being a stoner does explain many of his comments there.
Your Constitutional Right to Cannabis
You and I have a Constitutional Right to grow, to possess, and to consume cannabis sativa and its variants.
Really you do. I want all of you lawn order Democrats to read this. I want all of you Tea Partiers to smoke this. I want all of you cryptofascists to read this. I want all of you Christians to read this.
I have pointed out to people in debates for years that it says right in the Constitution that you have a right to grow, possess, and yes! smoke cannabis sativa if you so choose. These people (some of them are well meaning but just ignorant) challenge me to point out the words in the Constitution that guarantee me the right to use cannabis sativa.
I tell them it is right there, right next to the words that guarantee them the right to manufacture, possess and consume alcohol. It’s right there, can’t you see it? Of course you can.
Because when the Constitution was ratified and the Bill of Rights was ratified the cultivation and processing and yes! the smoking of india hemp (cannabis sativa and its cultivars) was perfectly legal in the newborn United States of America. As a matter of fact, so was the production and use of alcohol. That is why a century later that miserable exercise in prohibition against alcohol required a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw alcohol.
It is time for the government to give up the war on hemp and move on. The War on Hemp is Un-Constitutional
It is over.
We the People have the Constitutional Right to use cannabis in any one of its four uses: spiritual, medicinal, recreational and nutritional-industrial.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Bill’s thinking is that if everyone posts as anonymous for a while and if everyone just chills without attacking each other that the troll influence will greatly diminish here. But that’s just a guess because how would I know I could be anyone…..
Yep…..you could be Mitch. (your writing style is not hard to spot)
I am tracking all of your IP addresses.
Just watching is demonstrating why so many people post anonymously now. His constant personal attacks and ad hominem fallacies are predictable.
LMFAO !!!
Where is Mitch to protect us from the harmful words written by just watchin? If I keep choosing to read what jw writes, I may burst into flames, or become a commie or a cappie or something awful lawful.
You’re a hoot Mitch !
Lug humpin wife beater!
“Libertarian Socialist” is a synonym for “Anarchist”, Bill.
Lead-based paint, smoking while pregnant, and abortion are all OK too by that same bit of the constitution, right? How about absinthe, LSD, or acid? Are those covered too? It doesn’t matter whether or not here in far-flung Humboldt you’ve got a 215 card. Marijuana is illegal at a federal level. Get over it, hippie. It’s bad for yourself and for those in your vicinity while you’re toking. I know you want to turn Humboldt into its own country or whatever, but that’s not reality. Methinks your tummy is a little TOO happy from all that bhang you’ve been chugging.
You remember those IQ tests you used to take, with a couple of geometric shapes like a triangle and a square and then maybe a picture of a banana? And they ask you whichtow are the same and which is different? Here’s a hint. Marijuana is similar to alchohol, though of course I believe it to be far more beneficial and far less addictive than alcohol. But lead paint? Different.
You fail the test. Sorry but you can’t escape the curve.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
Lead-based paint causes cancer, and so does smoking weed. The difference is the delivery method. If there were such a thing as lead vapor I’m pretty sure it’d be something to avoid, since aerosol delivery methods are much more effective than contact absorption. Second hand marijuana smoke has the same potentially deadly consequence as the cigarette has – cancer. Granted, there is no evidence that there is a HIGHER risk for those around second hand marijuana smoke than there is for those around second hand cigarette smoke — it’s the SAME risk. Marijuana & cigarettes — even incense — are all known for potentially causing lung and throat cancers. Breathing second-hand cigarette smoke is worse than smoking yourself, so it’s naive to think that pot somehow is magically different in that respect.
Speaking of ‘magical’, do you really believe that toking causes ‘spiritual journeys of enlightenment’ or whatever, or is that just one of many excuses (along with ‘chronic pain’, boo hoo) that you use to justify doing it? That’s what addicts do, Bill: they make excuses why it’s okay to do something they shouldn’t. Many Eurekan stoners don’t think twice about lighting up in public (bus stops, etc), then telling anyone who confronts them to go “find” themselves “‘cuz they’s gots a scrip”, as though that entitles them to do whatever they want, wherever they want, when in reality they can’t feel good unless they’re high. I guess that kind of spits in the eye of your claims to the contrary that pot isn’t addictive.
The high from smoking weed is from chemicals in pot that trick you into thinking you feel good by locking up your brain cells, creating a similar experience to what it feels like if you’re actually killing them. (Those ‘spiritual journeys’? Yeah, that’s your brain temporarily shutting down and becoming incapable of its full capacity since you can’t access parts of it.)
Your “test” is typically asinine of you, and doesn’t address my point in the slightest (being that your vaunted constitutional protection also covers the things I listed). Put the warm mug of bhang down, and try to answer my question about the constitutional protection of the things I listed again when you’re sober.
Right, because liberals never attacked, tracked or threatened conservative voices did they? Larry was notorious for this.
Followers of the ancient Roman religion (based upon drinking alcohol and drunken reverie) beieve that wine is the blood of Christ. Talk about imaginary friends.
Ya! Liberals only censor dissenting voices! We pretend they don’t exist.
The barriers between left and right, liberal and conservative are breaking down.
What is clear is the emerging line between those who believe in superstitions of the past and those who are comfotable with modernity.
Seven generation sustainability
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seven generation sustainability is an ecological concept that urges the current generation of humans to live sustainably and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future.[1] It originated with the Iroquois – Great Law of the Iroquois – which holds appropriate to think seven generations ahead (about 140 years into the future) and decide whether the decisions they make today would benefit their children seven generations into the future.
“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation… even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.” This is an often repeated saying, and most who use it claim that it comes from “The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Binding Law.”
In fact, the original language is as follows: In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion. Cast not over your shoulder behind you the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation.
Oren Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Nation, writes: “We are looking ahead , as is one of the first mandates given us as chiefs, to make sure and to make every decision that we make relate to the welfare and well-being of the seventh generation to come. . . .” “What about the seventh generation? Where are you taking them? What will they have?” [2]
go link yourself :)
“in reality they can’t feel good unless they’re high.”
They mistake high for ‘good’ and stoned for ‘normal’. They think moraly upright means ‘really beautiful man’. They think if they get cancer it’s okay because ‘it’s all good’. When they get loaded before they get on the bus they think it will take them to a ‘magic spiritual land’. I could go on about these adicted morans but I need another cup of coffee first.
State Assemblyman Who Voted Against Medical Marijuana Busted on Pot Charge
Cops said Steve Katz, conservative Republican from the Hudson Valley, was found with pot during a traffic stop on his way to Albany
By Kenneth Lovett, New York Daily News – Friday, March 15 2013
An outspoken state assemblyman who serves on the chamber’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee — and voted against medical marijuana — has been busted for possessing pot, state police said Friday.
Assemblyman Steve Katz, 59, a conservative Republican from the Hudson Valley, was pulled over on the state Thruway for going 80 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone when a trooper detected a “slight odor” of marijuana, state police spokesman Sgt. Don Baker said.
The trooper asked Katz if there was any pot in the car – and the assemblyman said “yes” and handed over a small bag that contained less than 25 ounces, Baker said.
The trooper did not see evidence that Katz was driving while impaired so he ticketed him for unlawful possession of marijuana, a noncriminal violation, and speeding — and let him drive off, Baker said. Katz was heading to Albany at the time.
I’m not up on the whole pot thing, but can a “small bag” hold 25 OUNCES of pot?
“Small” by Humboldt standards perhaps?
Gushi culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gushi (Chinese: 姑師文化; pinyin: Gūshī wénhuà) or Jushi (Chinese: 車師文化; pinyin: Jūshī wénhuà), was an ancient culture around the Turpan basin,[1] in what is today the Xinjiang region of China.
Historical context
The area around Ayding Lake in the Turpan region was said to be the territory of the Gushi people. According to historical accounts, these people “lived in tents, followed the grasses and waters, and had considerable knowledge of agriculture. They owned cattle, horses, camels sheep and goats. There were proficient with bows and arrows”.[2] The Gushi and the kingdom of Kroran were linked in the account of Zhang Qian, presuamably because they were under the control of the Xiongnu. In the years around 60 BC, Gushi fell to the Chinese after the Battle of Jushi and was subsequently known as Jushi.
Jushi then further differentiated into two kingdoms, the Nearer Jushi (Turfan) and the Further Jushi (Jimasa).
Archaeology and research
The Yanghai Tombs, a vast ancient cemetery (54 000 m2) attributed to this culture, have revealed the 2,700-year-old grave of a shaman. Near the head and foot of the shaman lay a large leather basket and wooden bowl filled with 789g of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. An international team demonstrated that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. This is the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent.[3]
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes,” rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.[3] The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.
This shaman was caucasoid, and was well over six feet tall. He may belong to, or was related to the Yuezhi people or Tocharians known to have lived in the region.
I don’t think they would have buried that much cannabis if they could get the price it goes for today.
“Lead-based paint causes cancer, and so does smoking weed.” #629
Of the top 10 countries for the number of people who have ever used cannabis, five are also in the top 10 for rating themselves as very happy and the top 10 for life satisfaction. None are in the top 10 for countries with people who rate themselves as not very or not at all happy. Six of the top dope-smoking countries are also in the top 10 for fruit juice consumption. Four of the top cannabis-using countries were in the top 10 for having attended a demonstration, and five were in the top 10 lists for joining a boycott and signing a petition.
Yeah, although Cheech and Chong were total losers they were very happy.
All the dope smoking losers are happy as long as there are sober people around to take care of them.
So stoners feel that they are happy, satisfied, drink a lot of juice, and join protests (of course they do. Few have jobs and a lot of time to kill).
Again with the stereotypical BS from the Watcher. It’s so typical of him that he doesn’t consider his smears of liberals to be insults. Countries which have the freedom that allows people to smoke pot (even if technically illegal) are bound to have happier people than totalitarian states which punish it harshly. They would also naturally have a higher rate of civic participation. Only in Watchin’s brain does caring about your country and community enough to spend time protesting its faults translate to not having a job and being stoned and/or drunk all the time. His liberal caricatures are so boringly predictable that I could write his opinions after spending 10 minutes a day listening to Rush.
Conservatives want to leave their descendants piles of cash to protect them from the eminent collapse of civilization. Liberals want to leave their descendants a decent life earth for all. I like the liberal agenda better.
Exactly where did I associate the stoner culture to liberals? The fact that you made the connection says it all. I merely stated the obvious….that people who stay stoned just naturally feel happier. Hell, I thought that was why people smoked dope. And where did I say anything about being drunk? And you’re saying that you have to be a stoner to participate in civic matters? I believe that you’ve proven my point. Why don’t you light another doobie and go wait by your mailbox for your welfare check. And don’t play in the traffic. You’re in no shape to dodge cars!
And I still don’t understand the whole juice drinking thing. Maybe it’s some sort of stoner tradition. Can anyone explain?
How does passing on a mountain of debt “leave their descendants a decent life for all”? I plan on leaving my sons a butt load of money, and they can create their own “decent life”. Or I could blow all of my money, change parties and become a democrat, and leave em a pile of bills when I kick.
A decent life can’t be bought with mountains of money if those around you are starving. Your butt load of money isn’t going to stop climate change or soil depletion. It is being taken from the pockets of the working poor who labor for dividends and your food. You are helping to create the economic crisis you fear. Talk about self fulfilling prophecy.
“You are helping to create the economic crisis you fear”……. Trust me Anon…….with the money I have, I don’t fear any economic crisis.
You invested in a moon colony?
The drugs are taking over. You need to seek help.
How little you understand of our economic sysem. Unless Just Watching is a bank robber or a government employee he is not taking “from the pockets of the working poor”. His success helps the working poor by providing them jobs and buying their services and products.
His retirement is funded by their labor. His class has taken a larger and larger share of the profits since the 70′s. If I should be paying you a living wage but instead I’m cutting them and sending it to Just Watchin to stuff in his gold vault to hand over to his kids on his death. If more of that money was paid to labor’s share, our economy would be better for everyone, including Just Watchin.
When you have an entire class of takers, you have to have makers.
JW is a part of the problem, not the solution.
Labor is making and you are taking.
I’ll take that as a compliment. Thank you. After all this time, some people still don’t get it. I worked hard all my life to get where I am, and could really care less about those who haven’t.
That’s Christian morality for you.
Christian morality?? I’m an atheist, dumbass. Save the preachin for Sunday.
I’m sorry to have to be the one to inform you JW, but you are your own worst enemy.
You are right about one thing……you are sorry.
Ode To A Scab
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation.
Jack London 1915
Like the rest of the social Darwinists JW is evolving backwards. I guess he hasn’t noticed that the world changed forever on 9/11.
@ #660 JW defensively claims he’s an atheist. Which is no surprise since he lacks any moral compass.
California Spends Too Much – Supporting Failed Red States
Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed
The Tax Foundation has released a fascinating report showing which states benefit from federal tax and spending policies, and which states foot the bill.
The report shows that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are “winners” — receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes — 76% are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. Indeed, 17 of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States. Here are the Top 10 states that feed at the federal trough (with Red States highlighted in bold):
States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:
1. D.C. ($6.17)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)
In contrast, of the 16 states that are “losers” — receiving less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes — 69% are Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000. Indeed, 11 of the 14 (79%) of the states receiving the least federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Blue States. Here are the Top 10 states that supply feed for the federal trough (with Blue States highlighted in bold):
States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:
1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2004/09/red_states
Bill’s successfully found his new identity as ‘anonymous’. See how much fun it is to be a “nameless internet coward”, you worthless stoner lame?
via the SacBee:
From the Hyde Park mound in West Fresno, you can see the city landscape quickly go from residential to industrial park. You can smell it, too.
Across the street, there is an animal rendering plant, a poultry facility, a meat distributor and a PG&E substation. The Hyde Park mound itself is a converted garbage landfill.
But there is more: high asthma rates, widespread poverty and low birth weights that scientists link to dirty air, chemical exposures and a host of other problems.
The California Environmental Protection Agency says people in West Fresno live with higher health risks than anyone in California – higher than any part of Los Angeles, Oakland or any place else you can name.
Life expectancy in West Fresno is more than 20 years lower than in northeast Fresno, according to a 2012 study done by a team of researchers including the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/17/5269301/california-epa-puts-west-fresno.html
On Sunday the Los Angeles Times published a story about the important successes of campaigns to pass local minimum wage and living wage laws. However, while highlighting new developments that will impact local economies and the lives of workers, the Times missed the real story and forces behind this growing trend.
In fact, both measures were conceived and carried to victory by broad coalitions of people and organizations interested in improving their cities – together with key labor partners who see their role as improving the lot of all workers’ lives.
read the rest of the article:
http://www.calitics.com/diary/14905/la-times-misses-the-story-behind-living-wage-campaigns
You do realize that you are also posting as an “Anonymous”, Don’t you?
Anonymity can be used to disseminate information. Anonymity can be wasted on ad hominem attacks, stupid beer hall analogies, and “look over there” diversions and “let’s you and him fight” trolling. Trolling at a certain level is another form of censorship too since it smashes the soapbox upon which free speech is standing.
NCJ: Eureka Fair Wage Initiative “Easily” Qualifies for Ballot – Will Be Before City Council Mar. 19
The Eureka Fair Wage campaign is delighted that we easily surpassed the 10% signature threshold, guaranteeing ballot access for the Eureka Fair Wage Act. We believe, however, and hope to prove, that we gathered enough signatures to cross the 15% threshold which would put the Fair Wage Act on a ballot even sooner.
Please come out to the Eureka City Council meeting at 6:00pm, Tuesday March 19 and show your support for the Eureka Fair Wage Act. The Fair Wage Act (or “Minimum Wage Ordinance”) will be on the agenda. The City Council has the option, again, to listen to the needs of the people and simply pass the Act, raising the minimum wage for large employers to pay their workers in Eureka. If the Council does not, we will continue organizing and pass the initiative at the ballot box!
Wage Hike Proposal Headed to Eureka City Council
North Coast Journal, Ryan Burns, Mar. 8, 2013
Here’s a ray of hope for people working at Eureka’s Taco Bell. Or Wal-Mart. Or any other business in the city that pays workers as little as the law will tolerate:
A petition to boost Eureka’s minimum wage to $12 an hour has received enough valid signatures to be presented to the City Council at its March 19 meeting.
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing/2013/03/08/wage-hike-proposal-headed-eureka-city-council/
More uninformed nonsense bill.
The local Taco Bell, McDonalds & Burger Kings are locally owned. They all have less than 50 employees.
It is said that we don’t need a minimum wage, that a minimum wage causes unemployment, that if the minimum wage were lower then employers could afford to hire more workers. It is said often that this is “supply and demand” and an ironclad “law of economics.” It is of course an argument designed to appeal to the simpler minded half of the gene pool.
Yet two facts confront us.
One, the real purchasing power in constant dollar terms of the minimum wage has declined for 45 years, so there has been a de facto “lowering” of the minimum wage, and Two, we currently have a very persistent and high level of unemployment.
The laboratory of life has proved this favorite Chamber of Commerce meme to be a fabrication that is nowhere near real life economics.
We conclude that the theory that lowering the minimum wage increases employment is FALSE.
You appear to be somewhat uniformed yourself on our local issues. The Eureka Fair Wage Act applies to businesses with 25 or more employees, not 50.
It is a Mom & Pop protection act. It is a Small Box protection act.
Where did you say you were from?
If the minimum wage act is on the November 2014 ballot that is going to be a humdinger of an election. There are three city council seats up for vote next year. All the candidates will have to take a position on it. Play it wrong and oops you have a whole new majority in this town.
From Eureka Bill. But unlike you I have lived here all my life. You people who lived their lives elsewhere their whole lives and then come here to retire have a snobbishness that makes you think you know more than us.
You don’t. You don’t work and apparently don’t care about those of us who do.
Your abject refusal to tell us why, if $12 an hour is so great, why didn’t you push for $20 an hour tells us all we need to know.
its not that great. it is a fair wage, that working 32 hours will put one person just above poverty level.
this is merely a small step in the right direction; to relive struggling families, individuals and our suffering economy.
no onto an unrelated note. FYI.
“St. Patrick” was an Englishman; who came to Ireland to brutally drive out (kill) the natives, and subjugate the land of it wealth and fertility. so you can drink green beer.
so being Irish and celebrating “Pats” day; is kinda like being a Jew celebrating the holocaust
“Irish Christians” is nothing more then mass Stockholm syndrome, the same can be said for African Christians, American(native) Christians, and Mexican Christians.
have a nice day.
Um, isn’t there a separate thread for talking about the Fair Wage Fools?
Also, interesting to see that Bill is using Anonymous now, but when he’s following his patented Bill Holmes Post Pattern, it’s not anonymous at all. His “voice” always seems to carry a condescending, pretentiously superior tone, he calls people who don’t agree with them ‘ignorant’, and often insults them only to ‘explain’ how he didn’t three posts later. It’s really distinctive.
How Raising Wages Lifts the Economy- Economist Richard Wolff Interviewed by Bill Moyers
http://billmoyers.com/content/richard-wolff-on-how-raising-the-minimum-wage-lifts-america/
“The minimum wage has not always left a single income-earner for a family of three so far below the poverty line. In 1968, when minimum wage was at it’s highest point ever, that same breadwinner would have made $19,245 a year in today’s dollars — roughly a third more than he or she makes now.
In 1981, in an attempt to fight inflation, the minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 per hour despite the rising cost of living. It wasn’t bumped up until 1990, by which point it had fallen well below the poverty line for a family of two (about $2,500 lower than for a family of three). From 1997 to 2007, the minimum wage remained stuck at $5.15 per hour, as, once again, the cost of living continued to increase.”
This was answered three and a half months ago, on Nov 26 right here on this blog and probably a half a dozen times since then.
An abject refusal to listen.
http://humboldtherald.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/eureka-fair-wage-act-what-do-people-think/#comment-185645
Next he’s going to demand President Obama’s birth certificate.
Democrats like the Minimum Wage because they can be perceived as fighting for the working guy when the Government colludes with the Chamber of Commerce on poverty class wage fixing. The Republicans like wage fixing because it keeps a permanent under-paid virtually powerless under-class. True freedom loving Americans are self empowered enough that they don’t even buy into the price and/or wage fixing. If we were economically free (in our minds), wouldn’t we demand a living wage in exchange for our labor instead of begging the government to collude with big business on how low they can pay us?
Who is this fool who stole Smart 5th Grader’s ID? This is not SFG.
Sorry, wrong. I am and always have been Smart 5th Grader. New gravatar.
See? Same Smart 5th Grader
*************************
So who is a progressive? You might be one if
• You think health care is a basic human right, and that single-payer national health insurance is a worthwhile reform on our way toward creating a non-profit national health care service.
• You think that human rights ought always to trump property rights.
• You think U.S. military spending is an obscene waste of resources, and that the only freedom this spending protects is the freedom of economic elites to exploit working people all around the planet.
• You think U.S. troops should be brought home not only from Afghanistan and Iraq, but from all 130 countries in which the U.S. has military bases.
• You think political leaders who engage in “preemptive war” and invasions should be brought to trial for crimes against humanity and judged against the standards of international law established at Nuremberg after World War Two.
• You think public education should be free, not just from kindergarten through high school, but as far as a person is willing and able to go.
• You think that electoral reform should include instant run-off voting, publicly-financed elections, easy ballot access for all parties, and proportional representation.
• You think that electoral democracy is not enough, and that democracy must also be participatory and extend to workplaces.
• You think that strengthening the rights of all workers to unionize and bargain collectively is a useful step toward full economic democracy.
• You think that as a society we have a collective obligation to provide everyone who is willing and able to work with a job that pays a living wage and offers dignity.
• You think that a class system which forces some people to do dirty, dangerous, boring work all the time, while others get to do clean, safe, interesting work all the time, can never deliver social justice.
• You think that regulating big corporations isn’t enough, and that such corporations, if they are allowed to exist at all, must either serve the common good or be put into public receivership.
• You think that the legal doctrine granting corporations the same constitutional rights as natural persons is absurd and must be overturned.
• You think it’s wrong to allow individuals to accumulate wealth without limits, and that the highest incomes should be capped well before they begin to threaten community and democracy.
• You think that wealth, not just income, should be taxed.
• You think it’s crazy to use the Old Testament as a policy guide for the 21st century.
• You believe in celebrating diversity, while also recognizing that having women and people of color proportionately represented among the class of oppressors is not the goal we should be aiming for.
• You think that the state has no right to kill, and that putting people to death to show that killing is wrong will always be a self-defeating policy.
• You think that anyone who desires the reins of power that come with high political office should, by reason of that desire, be seen as unfit for the job.
• You think that instead of more leaders, we need fewer followers.
• You think that national borders, while sometimes establishing territories of safety, more often establish territories of exploitation, much like gang turf.
• You are open to considering how the privileges you enjoy because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and/or physical ability might come at the expense of others.
• You believe that voting every few years is a weak form of political participation, and that achieving social justice requires concerted effort before, during, and after elections.
• You think that, ideally, no one would have more wealth more than they need until everyone has at least as much as they need to live a safe, happy, decent life.
• You recognize that an economic system which requires continuous expansion, destroys the environment, relies on rapidly-depleting fossil fuels, exacerbates inequality, and leads to war after war is unsustainable and must be replaced. Score a bonus point if you understand that sticking to the existing system is what’s unrealistic.
When uber libtard Bill Maher threatens to leave California over excessive taxation, you know you’ve gone too far.
Something rich Liberals and rich Conservatives can agree on; let the working class pay.
Not so Smart 5th grader;
– If health care is a “basic human right” why isn’t food, clothing & shelter? Why isn’t the federal government supplying all people with their own nice homes, nice cars and good food?
- Name an example of where property rights “trump” human rights?
The rest of your post #688 contain so many errors it could become an entire semester class on the follies of liberals.
Actually, “Oh Please!” no serious person, whether liberal or conservative, would want to be associated with SFG’s entire list.
It’s a great list for smart fifth graders, though, and for sophomoric college sophomores and others who have never really experienced having to work for a living.
It would make a great list of DEMANDS to SHOUT out, and it might get its collegiate author laid, so it’s not completely without value.
Oh Please!
SFGs entire list looks good to me.
Suddenlink users wondering why their streaming or gaming is slow or experiencing timeouts, or other problems, might want to geolocate their IP address. The easiest way is to go to a “speed test” website. In the past, they thought I was in northern California. Now they think I’m coming from Lubbock, Texas.
Remember the ending of the Soprano’s
America is the only so-called first world country without universal health care. I have been in so-called third world countries with universal health care. America only has universal taxes and a universal government. That and Drones.
Beck off in Cloud Koo Koo land.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a mass, nonviolent protest in Detroit against the new emergency financial manager at a rally this morning at city hall.
The activists alongside Jackson pledged to file a lawsuit next week challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s new emergency manager law, which takes effect Thursday and grants broad powers to the incoming EFM, Kevyn Orr.
http://www.freep.com/article/20130322/NEWS01/130322040/Jesse-Jackson-calls-mass-protest-against-Detroit-s-emergency-financial-manager-
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/22/1196197/-Happy-Friday-Republicans-on-the-skids
Tea Party group boycotting Fox News for becoming ‘too liberal’
By David Ferguson
Raw Story
Saturday, March 23, 2013 16:10 EDT
…“We have seen FOX suddenly get very loud about Benghazi after the 1st boycott, but conservatives are conservative because they are not stupid,” reads the boycott website, Benghazi-Truth. “We recognize, easily, loud noise which is low on substance. In other words, by whining loudly about Benghazi without the kind of hard-hitting investigative reporting that brought down Nixon over Watergate, what we are seeing from FOX IMO is smoke and mirrors; a trick, to fool us into dutifully genuflecting at their alter [sic] of their arrogant hosts who throw us crumbs with one hand while insulting us with the other. If we want FOX to get serious, we’re going to have to keep hitting them hard. And that is just exactly what we’re going to do.”
One boycotter, former New Hampshire state legislator Kevin Avard, said that he finds it difficult to go without his daily dose of right-wing commentary. “I am having withdrawal. I do like Fox News. I have been going to CNN, and to Headline News just to get some kind of fix. I usually probably only watch them once or twice a year.”
Hjerlied, on the other hand, is staying within familiar ideological waters during the 4-day boycott, which began Thursday and ends on Sunday morning.
“If I want news, I go to Breitbart News and Drudge and I can find all the news I need, very quickly,” he said, noting that since the first boycott, he has all but “kicked” the Fox News “habit” for good. “I used to have it on all day long, and I probably watched maybe six hours last week,” he said. “The more I looked at it, I have come to the conclusion that Fox is not as fair and balanced as I thought. They shade the truth also.”
Boycotters have listed their agenda, that Fox become “the right-wing CBS News: to break stories, to break information, and to do what news organizations have always done with such stories: break politicians.” They have also demanded that the network feature ”at least one segment on Benghazi every night on two of its prime-time shows; that Fox similarly devote investigative resources to discovering the truth of Obama’s birth certificate; and that the network cease striving to be ‘fair and balanced.’”
“We need Fox to turn right,” Hjerlied said. “We think this is a coverup and Fox is aiding and abetting it. This is the way Hitler started taking over Germany, by managing and manipulating the news media.”
The Tea Party wants to be the ones in charge of managing and manipulating the news media. Makes sense. Their actual agenda is more similar to the American Nazi Party than not.
And funded by multinational industrialists – just like Hitler.
Eureka Blockbuster To Close
http://humboldtheraldodos.wordpress.com/
Latest reports are that health insurance costs are to increase by 20-30% next year due to obamacare. Thanks a lot.
You’re not rich, you never went to college…so pathetic. Get therapy, before it’s too late.
Every person who has presided over the destruction of the American economy and our environment went to college and is part of the one percent. Every greedy CEO went to college and got a business degree to learn how to enslave their neighbors for slave wages and sell the working class overpriced junk which will be in the landfill faster than you can say One Percenter Mitch in his Ivory Tower in Trinidad.
Muslim Friday night follies in Baghdad, four car bombs exploded at mosques killing at least 19 and wounding over 70.
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) used a racial slur to describe the type of ranch hands that were hired to pick tomatoes on his father’s farm.
“My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 or 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes. You know, it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine,” Rep. Young told KRBD-AM on Thursday.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/03/29/gop_rep_don_young_refers_to_latinos_as_wetbacks.html
Feds want $18 million back from timber counties
By JEFF BARNARD and BEN NEARY
Associated Press
Published: Friday, Mar. 29, 2013 – 4:05 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Mar. 29, 2013 – 4:21 pm
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The U.S. Forest Service’s demands that rural timber counties pay back millions of dollars in federal subsidies under automatic budget cuts have outraged members of Congress from both parties and caused concern in those counties with struggling economies.
Thirty-one members of the House this week sent a letter to the Obama administration protesting demands that they return $17.9 million in revenues that pay for schools, roads, search and rescue operations in rural counties as well as for conservation projects.
“For the administration to announce three months after the disbursement of these payments that they are subject to the sequester, and that states will receive a bill for repayment of funds already distributed to counties, appears to be an obvious attempt by President Obama’s Administration to make the sequester as painful as possible,” said the letter organized by House Resources Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and signed by 30 others, including Democrats.
Forest Service Chief Thomas L. Tidwell sent letters to 41 states telling them they need to repay $15.6 million disbursed in January under the Secure Rural Schools Act, which since 2000 has sent billions of dollars to 700 rural counties to make up for reductions in federal logging revenues due to fish and wildlife protections. The top recipients have been Oregon, California and Washington.
Tidwell also demanded the return of $2.3 million in other payments. He said the money needed to be repaid because it was sent out in fiscal year 2013, and is included under the 5.1 percent across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration.
Many rural counties in the West also will be hit hard by Department of Interior cuts to the Payment In Lieu of Taxes Program, which reimburses counties for tax revenues they have lost by having federal lands within in their borders. The PILT program paid $393 million to over 1,850 counties last year, and this year those payments are also being cut by 5.1 percent – about $20 million.
Members of Congress questioned the need to repay money disbursed by the Forest Service because the money had been appropriated in fiscal year 2012.
Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers told The Associated Press he had nothing to say beyond what was in the chief’s letter.
Many rural counties in Oregon were already struggling as money from the Secure Rural Schools Act was reduced over the years. The law has expired, and the last payments went out in January.
Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson, president of an association of Oregon timber counties that receive the funds, is hoping Gov. John Kitzhaber will offset the $3.6 million Oregon would have to repay by taking it from funds already dedicated to conservation projects on federal lands. That would spare struggling counties from having to come up money they have already spent.
“We never see that money anyway,” Robertson said. “It’ll work out.”
Bob Rolston, a Sheridan County commissioner and president of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, said commissioners across Wyoming are concerned about losing PILT funds, which amount to 25 percent of the annual budget in some counties.
“These are taxes that are due to the counties from the federal lands that lie within those counties,” he said. “The way we look at it, if you don’t pay your taxes, the sheriff’s going to sell your property on the courthouse steps. They seem to think they don’t have to pay the taxes, and that’s the way it goes.”
Jessica Kershaw, press secretary with the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., said “Interior was not afforded discretion to exempt PILT from the sequester.”
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has expressed frustration that federal agencies are dribbling out word of how they’re implementing the funding cuts.
Earlier this week, Mead said he was outraged that the Department of Interior announced it is cutting $53 million in federal mineral royalty payments to the state, the nation’s leading coal producer.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/29/5303121/feds-want-18-million-back-from.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News#storylink=cpy
Former California DOJ Big
shot Bureau Chief arrested on conflict charges
By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Mar. 29, 2013 – 5:34 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Mar. 29, 2013 – 6:17 pm
California’s top law enforcement agency is prosecuting one of its own, a Rancho Cordova man charged with felony conflict of interest over a contract made while he worked for the attorney general.
James Joseph Brown Jr. was arrested this month on charges of monetary conflict of interest and a related felony charge of perjury, the latter for allegedly failing to disclose personal ties to Govcentric Inc., listed in state records as a local consulting firm.
The 55-year-old administrator was the Justice Department’s bureau chief of information systems when the crimes occurred between Nov. 2 and Dec. 8 of 2009, according to a complaint filed in Sacramento Superior Court.
Brown is free on $25,000 bail pending further court proceedings April 11.
The attorney general’s office declined to discuss the case, and records that might contain details are sealed in a court file. Neither Brown nor his attorney, Russell W. Miller Jr., returned calls from The Bee for comment.
Brown’s legal problems stem from an incident Nov. 2, 2009, in which he became “financially interested in a contract made by him in his official capacity, and by a body and board of which (he) was a member,” the criminal complaint said.
The nature of the state contract, its size and parties involved were not identified.
But Brown’s failure to disclose his ties to Govcentric was “connected in its commission” to the contracting conflict of interest, the complaint said. Prosecutors say he perjured himself in a required financial disclosure statement.
Govcentric has done big business with the state, submitting more than $800,000 in purchase orders tied to the Department of Justice between February 2010 and May 2011, according to records from the Department of General Services. The company participated in redesign of the agency’s computer information system as early as 2006.
Charges against Brown do not cite actions prior to 2009, however. The only allegation of contract-related misconduct stems from activity Nov. 2, 2009.
Brown allegedly misstated the fair market value of Govcentric, falsely declared that he had disposed of his personal interest in the firm, and failed to disclose his community property share in Govcentric, the company’s primary source of revenue, or income and reimbursements he received from it.
Brown’s wife, Kimberly Schwartz-Brown, was the local agent for Govcentric when it incorporated in California in 2005, according to records filed with the secretary of state.
More recent state documents, from May 2011, list another woman as the firm’s agent and chief executive officer.
Brown transferred last year from the Justice Department to Covered California – the California Health Benefits Exchange – where his salary was $133,524 per year as project director of information technology. He left state employment March 25, the day of his arraignment.
Besides the two alleged offenses from 2009, Brown was charged with felony failure to disclose personal interests in Govcentric and Kimberly-James Cellars in 2011, and separately, with felony failure to disclose ties to Kimberly-James Cellars, Govcentric and Capital City Consulting in 2012.
State business records show Kimberly Schwartz-Brown as the agent for incorporating Kimberly-James Cellars in June 2010. Months later, she was listed as chief financial officer and James Brown as chief executive officer of the wine production company, located at their home. The firm’s name is a combination of their own.
Capital City Consulting was incorporated in May 2011 and run by Kimberly Schwartz-Brown. The business management consulting firm dissolved in February, one month before her husband’s arrest, records show.
Brown also faces two misdemeanor charges, failure to file required financial disclosure statements with the Justice Department and with the Health Benefits Exchange upon transferring from one to the other in summer 2012.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/29/5303231/former-california-state-employee.html#mi_rss=Latest%20News#storylink=cpy
Arizona State Senator, Tea Party Republican Investigated Over Classroom Invasion
shortlink: http://wp.me/p38Pt0-6P mnemonic: http://urlet.com/pooled.relapse
PHOENIX (AP) – An Arizona school is considering hiring armed guards after a state senator barged
into a classroom and verbally threatened a teacher over a dispute involving his teenage grandson.
Students, teachers and administrators were alarmed when a visibly agitated [ Republican Sen. Don ]
Shooter slipped past a receptionist who had told him he couldn’t enter the school…..
hxxp://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubsectionID=1&ArticleID=117595
Posted in Arizona, GOP, Tagged arizona, arizona tea party, classroom invasion, Republican Sen. Don
Shooter, school invasion
Keeping with the motto: “if it doesn’t move, tax it”, I see that the Sacramento lawmakers are wanting to tax ammunition. Their new slogan is : ” Guns don’t kill people…..bullets kill people”. That’s right up there with the dumbest things I have ever heard. If that’s the case, why not : ” drunk drivers don’t kill people……cars kill people”.
I’d go along with that 713. A drunk stumbling down the sidewalk is a lot less likely to kill someone than if he’s in a car just like a crazy person ranting on the corner is less likely to kill someone than a crazy with a gun.
So I guess you’re fine with the same sort of regulations on guns as cars which would mean , registration of the gun, licensing of the gun owner and insurance to cover any damages the gun might inflict, 7:11.
The more guns the better, 712?
Is that your point? The more heavily that we are armed, the lower the crime rate and the safer from tyranny? Don’t beat around the bush.
What was it in the 7:12 post that made you think I’m a gun nut 714? I was just going along with 7:11′s equating guns to cars. I agree with him and think we should have the same regulations on guns as we do cars. You can’t operate one that isn’t registered or insured and you have to have a license to operate one. Sounds like a rational conclusion.
I am 15 not 14…..your numeration is off by one, curiously….but just to be clear, I said “the more guns the better….” and I was replying to 551am “keeping with the motto..” which is #712 in my pixellation. I myself am somewhat neutral on the gun issue, though I would note that a modern semi auto assualt rifle has nearly the firepower of a Thompson submachine gun, that has been illegal since the 30s. Yes I know the difference between semi auto and full auto. I am just stating the reality of the firepower of both weapons, which is in effect almost identical. Yes I have owned a Ruger mini 14 stainless steel ranch rifle with scope in the past but I do not own any guns now. So i have some knowledge of these things. No one that I know is advocating for legal Tommy guns, though once upon a time you could buy them over the counter.
And, of course, if you are caught operating one (having it in your possession) while drunk or stoned you go to jail and lose your license to operate a gun. Sounds fair doesn’t it?
Note: Having a gun in your possession would mean out of the gun safe in this case.
Not just drunk or stoned. Anyone who is taking an SSRI antidepressant or antipsychotic, anyone abusing steriods, and anyone who is convicted of domestic violence should be temporarily deprived of lethal weapons.
For my fellow Eurekans who treasure their right to vote.
The Constitution of the State of California has guaranteed since 1879 the voters the right to approve by 2/3 majority the sale of long term obligations. (Bonds)
In the dark of election night last November the Eureka City Council passed a resolution that in effect filed a lawsuit against “All Persons Interested.” In effect every citizen of Eureka was sued, but more importantly the 14,000 voters of Eureka were sued to strip them of their right to vote on an $8.5 million bond issue – and ALL PENSION BOND ISSUES IN THE FUTURE.
We have one week to fix this. Trial is next monday and I have asked for a jury trial. I am not a lawyer the best defense I will be able to mount will be a few simple constitutional arguments and hope that the jury rules in our favor.
If you want the details go to my blog. http://highboltage.com
This is a bizarre reverse class action lawsuit and I was the only one to answer it. Am I the only one in Eureka that cares about the right to vote? I don’t think so but where are you?
This issue cuts across party and left/right lines. My issue is that I am a small “d” democrat who wants to protect democracy. I think the bonds are crappy junk bonds but the city has the right to issue crappy junk bonds – if the voters approve. That’s my issue.
Call the city council and demand that they end this farce NOW! Demand that they WITHDRAW THE LAWSUIT AGAINST YOU AND PUT THE BOND ISSUE ON THE BALLOT.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
So getting back to the issue of 7:11′s post, cars don’t run without fuel and guns don’t shoot without bullets. We tax fuel to help pay for the roads. Taxing bullets to help pay the costs due to lots of guns in society seems reasonable.
I agree. This tax fill solve the problem.
Use your imagination. Let’s have a special tax on fast food joints and excuse it with the cost of heart disease. Special tax on video games and say its for obesity among teenagers. Tax silverware sales because of the people killed by steak knives.
Using this approach the government could suck up every dollar out there.
Silverware? That could be going to far.
Because the only debating point you have is hysterical exaggeration, BG. If people want to raise the minimum wage 4 dollars, you go nuts and say why not 20? If you want to tax bullets why not milk FFS! Get a new tactic this one is limp and stale.
And why won’t you answer the question about how high you want the minimum wage to be Bill?
Coward.
$12.00 an hour. Isn’t that clear after a year? Really its a pretty dumb question.
I have answered this question 12 times now. People who use their own names on internet discussion boards may need to have their heads examined, true, but they are not cowards.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
And you’re a fucking moron.
….
Aww, hit a nerve 728?
Can you be more specific 728? Is there a factual or grammatical error? Or is it that you just disagree that it is reasonable to tax items which cost society a great deal of money when they are used?
Taxing bullets and blaming it on gun violence is just a phoney excuse to raise more taxes.
Is there any valid excuse to raise taxes, in your opinion, 12:44?
People in Sweeden pay a very high tax rate but they have cradle to grave medical, free education (must get good grades or you are out), and have a host of other government services (So far, no protest in Sweeden). Argentina has a much lower tax rate but several years back they had a tax revolt. Why? Because these people are just like you. They want to know what they are getting for what they are paying. The United States has Income Tax (Fed and State and SSI and Medicare and Disablity and Unemployment – all taxes on your income). We have sales tax, gas tax, energy tax, tobacco tax, alcohol tax, et al.
Our schools are crumbling, they are laying off the teachers, our roads have more potholes than ever, my health care costs are soaring. In fairness to us, we have been building the infastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Why in the world would I want to give the United States more money to boondoggle?
“Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts. Internal notes from a March meeting of top Walmart managers show the company grappling with low customer confidence in its produce and poor quality. “Lose Trust,” reads one note, “Don’t have items they are looking for — can’t find it.”
Walmart is addressing the grocery concerns with measures like a new inventory system and signs that will help employees figure out what is fresh and what is not, Jack L. Sinclair, Walmart United States executive vice president for food, said in an interview. Brooke Buchanan, a company spokeswoman, said Walmart felt its stores were fully staffed.
Before the recession, at the start of 2007, Walmart had an average of 338 employees per store at its United States stores and Sam’s Club locations. Now, it has 281 per store, having cut the number of United States employees while adding hundreds of stores.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/business/walmart-strains-to-keep-grocery-aisles-stocked.html?hp