Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel (But TRULY Loathsome Fish)

On TDSWJS, on May 13, 2015, Stewart skewered FauxNooz/‪#‎IgnerintFukWitz‬, and in particular heaped vitriol and scorn on that smarmy, faux-Toff shitwhistle, Stuart Varney, with clips and commentary which made them look like fools.

But of course looking like fools is what Rupe and Roger pay their drones, satraps and ass-sucking sycophants to do (FauxNooz bimbettes must also flash panty occasionally), and pays them very well. Personally, I don't think I could pass Varney (or Hannity, Or O'Reilly. Or Doucey or...) on the street without pushing his useless ass in-front of a fuuking bus,

The Daily Show
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Tastes Good; Less Filling!

John Oliver on Nukes: "You ALMOST bombed one of the Carolinas out of existence...

Perhaps that's why we have TWO of them?

LouisCK: "God Is Like A Shitty Girlfriend"

Rolling Coal-bert: Anti-Environment, Anti-Earth Activists

Inequality: John Oliver

Income Inequality Better Watch Its ASS!

Betrayed By The Media? Not So Much...

Yer Ol' Perfesser's reservations about the actual efficacy of Mr. Moyers as a press critic do not need to be rehashed here, but I hafta beg to differ. He's wrong, because he won't accept--or admit to--the reality of media in our time: The Big Media bear us no responsibility. "Let the Buyer beware." (Caveat emptor...it's an old scam)...

The Big Media--all corporat/state media--are businesses first and foremost, and have long since abandoned the institutional pretenses of actual journalism which protected them still from serious interference, then and still. It is somewhat ironic that the "Press" always bragged that it was the "only business with Constitutional Protections; a fact which we now see as being a distinctly double-edged blade.

Since the late 70s, and the onset of what was admiringly called "media consolidation" ("Media Monopolies" was what Ben Bagdickian called em in a 1980 book, the first of its kind), the function of the Big media has been as stenographers, repeating verbatim the discourses they're 'reporting.' This is what they are paid to do. 

Their bosses, the directors sitting in those six boardrooms that oversee and control the operations of their safely purchased properties--which comprise 95%, more or less, of the sum and TOTAL of commercial media enterprises in the whole fuukin COUNTR, including Mr. Moyers and his programs-- have no desire that there should be any serious inquiry into their doings, either corporately or federally. To forestall such mischief was why they bought the "press," in the first place...

Successful coups ALWAYS start by seizing the media first. 

And, as Upton Sinclair reminded us a century ago, it will ALWAYS be difficult to get someone to acknowledge what their salary depends on their ignoring.

The WHOLE WORLD plays Soccer

I love stuff like this. They don't slug you with the logo til the end. Soccer's the epitome of a colonial icon.

Storm Warning

Hurricane Ashley Expected To Strike Several Bars This Cinco De Mayo

The Candidate from Transylvania! No, Not Rocky...

Just when you thought you'd gotten everything the GOPhukkks could muster in the way of kinky weirdness, after Blake Fahernthold, and David Vitter, and Wide-stance Larry Craig, and another three pages of names; after all that comes Jake Rush, aka vampire-wannabe, Chazz Darling.
Nope.
Not making this up. Promise. Stephen Cobert reported last night:

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The Anthropoid Dance Macabre

Jon Stewart's EPIC Rant on the GOPhux and the '14 SOTU

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Jon Stewart: The War On Carbon

Doug Stanhope: "I Did It To be A Prick!"

Star Wars: The 15-Minute Version!

The Conspiracy Theory Flow Chart

Jon Stewart Shows his TRUER Colors as an "Equivalantist."

Increased corporatization is wrong, or dubious, but aren't teachers' unions too rigid?

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The source of Stewart's not-well veiled antagonism toward Ravitch and her message is almost revealed at the end of the segment below, when Steward defends his 'friends' in the Charter Industry...and they're "really good people."

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Zozobra: The ORIGINAL "Burning Man"

 Have your OWN "Burning Man," the authentic, the original Zozobra!
Banish gloom, incinerate your "issues," dispel your worries!
Viva La Fiesta!!!!!
According to the accompanying link: #Zozobra has been burning away worries since 1926. "Zozo" wants to make the whole world worry free. We've reached 40 states and 10 countries. The only states we're missing are Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont. Enter your worry with our Virtual Zozobra and share with your friends from out of state and out of the country.
Each flag represents someone who has offered up a "worry," their problemas y preocupaciones, to Old man Gloom's cloak. Join us!

Pre-Nuptual/Pre-Procreative Preparation: Required

Camp Gyno! Very Funny!

The Way of the Mister: Must a Skeptic Be An Atheist?

Come to New Mexico...

For all the summer fun.
Here's a FBook image from NM tourist interests, hyping:
Hatch Chile Festival, Santa Fe Fiesta, New Mexico State Fair, and OF COURSE the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!!!
Not to mention all that artsy-fartsy shit in Santa Fe, Taos, and like that.

Hey! Listen UP@!
If any o'y'all are planning to visit our fair, but parched, state, please bring your own water. We don't really have enough for just us. So bring along a couple of cases. And pee before you leave, please. Thanks. --The management

Pangeia (with subtitles)

Here's what Pangea looks like mapped with modern political borders

Pretty wild, right? It's a map of Pangea — a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago — mapped with contemporary geopolitical borders.

What you see here is an anachronistic mashup — a modern map, complete with geological features that did not exist 300-million years ago, with its various parts relocated to the general position they would have occupied before Pangea began rifting apart some 200-million years ago. It's a view of the supercontinent not often seen, and a mind-bending way of relating to the world on a geological time scale. [Hi-res]

Redditor LikeWolvesDo, who posted the image last week, stumbled across this particular interpretation of Pangea at this roundup of Pangea Maps. Unfortunately, the source link is dead, so neither of us was able to find the map's true provenance. At the bottom corner of the image however, is a name – Massimo Pietrobon – and an email address; so, for the time being, we're going to assume he's the creator. We've reached out to Pietrobon, but have yet to receive a response. We'll let you know if and when we do. Edit: As ukuleledan points out in the comments, Pietrobon does, in fact, appear to be the map's creator.

"I'm A Little Teapot..."

Stephen Frye on the Craig Fergusson programme.

A Question of Balance

As BOTH amazing skill and gripping metaphor!

Home, Sweet Home

Sunday"Funnies"

Speakers in order of appearance:

1. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer
2. Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Laureate in Literature
3. Professor Isaac Asimov, Author and Biochemist
4. Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright
5. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature
6. Gore Vidal, Award-Winning Novelist and Political Activist
7. Douglas Adams, Best-Selling Science Fiction Writer
8. Professor Germaine Greer, Writer and Feminist
9. Iain Banks, Best-Selling Fiction Writer
10. José Saramago, Nobel Laureate in Literature
11. Sir Terry Pratchett, NYT Best-Selling Novelist
12. Ken Follett, NYT Best-Selling Author
13. Ian McEwan, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
14. Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (1999-2009)
15. Professor Martin Amis, Award-Winning Novelist
16. Michel Houellebecq, Goncourt Prize-Winning French Novelist
17. Philip Roth, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
18. Margaret Atwood, Booker Prize-Winning Author and Poet
19. Sir Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
20. Norman MacCaig, Renowned Scottish Poet
21. Phillip Pullman, Best-Selling British Author
22. Dr Matt Ridley, Award-Winning Science Writer
23. Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate in Literature
24. Howard Brenton, Award-Winning English Playwright
25. Tariq Ali, Award-Winning Writer and Filmmaker
26. Theodore Dalrymple, English Writer and Psychiatrist
27. Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
28. Redmond O'Hanlon FRSL, British Writer and Scholar
29. Diana Athill, Award-Winning Author and Literary Editor
30. Christopher Hitchens, Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Columnist

FEATURED MUSIC:

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.23 In A Major, K 488 Adagio 00:00
Ludovico Einaudi -- Solo 00:54
Brian Crain - Dream of Flying 07:53
Ludovico Einaudi - I Giorni 12:54
David Nevue - Watching The Clock 17:30
David Nevue -- Winter Walk 21:54


Copyright disclaimer--"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

TBGO: Black Powder; Bingo...er, I Mean: "Bang-o"

Bingo...er, I Mean: "Bang-o": Context is everything.




Central Coast Horticulture

Woody do love this part of Cali...I love a LOT of it, actually, mostly north of Ventura. I plan to have my ashes distributed upon the waves at Morro Rock. If there is also an orgy at the same time, that'd be good. I could live widdat...so to speak.
As far as vegetation: Those are wild calla lillies along a creek in the Big Sur. 
Personally, I am an ardent admirer of CalTrans' iceplant...I'd grow it in my yard, if 1) I could get it and 2) it would grow in NM. Other than the sea itself, there is no other quotidian reminder of Cali that is more evocative of the place than iceplant (see below).

 

Old People Are Smarter!

I realllllly like Louis CK!

A Woman? Not On My Terms!

Glenda Jackson, an actor of some fame and justified renown, has been a member of the House of Commons for more than 20 years, for Labour. Here she delivers a right smart bitch-slapping to the sainted memory of Baroness Thatcher into the teeth of torrid (for Tories) torment from the other benches.

     You might well recognize her face or voice., She played Elizabeth, I, in the memorable BBC/PBS teevee series in 1971, Elizabeth R, but she had a reputation for fierceness even before that, winning an Oscar for a controversial adaptation DH Lawrence's Women in Love, and demonstrating time and again her willingness to commit art. She delivers such a stroke, here, for her constituents.

Flash: Screw Mad Meg. Long Live Glenda Jackson!

Speechless? What Shit Like This Leaves Me

What the gun goons see when they stare down the barrels of their AK 47s and AR 15s is NEGROES!
It's the dominant, though usually unspoken, rationale for their obsessive attraction to their firearms. 
They are, as least spiritually, the descendants of the slave-owners on plantations in the ante-bellum South, always (rightfully) fearful of slave revolts. 
And they save the last rounds for their female relations. 
These knuckel-dragging baffoons offer sufficient evidence in this vid to go after their drivers' and weapons' licenses. 
They're fuukin' DANGEROUS!

God: Tantamount to Child Abuse

Teaching children to fear the vengeance of some mythical, but threatening, punitive, wrathful,  jealous and terrifying "Deity" BEFORE they've sussed out the Tooth Fairy's equivocal provenance is exactly equivalent to psychological abuse.

A Hole for An A Whole--Colbert-licious

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Economic Reality Is NOT What We THink It Is!

New: Mr. D & the Advocate...

Is "Capitalism" the PRoblem? Fucking DUH!

More annoyingly kid-gloved criticism from LBJ's former press secretary:

Join The Party!

Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian and my dream-crush!

NPR's "Spurious Objectivity" Drives Another Listener Away

      

Woody normally DON'T listen to NPR's Morning Edition, or any of their "news" programs, anymore.
Never Provoke Republicans radio.
NPR: Youm cannot spell "RePublicaN" without it.
The "bias" toward the spurious "middle" is too unrelenting...
And besides, it makes me physically ILL to listen to the inanities and chirpy, chipper maunderings of Insqueak and Rene Mundane.
Today I reminded myself why.
In a segment discussing the possible implications of the impending/threatened "sequestration," the editorial cretins invited the painfully orthodox, Friedmanesque "economics editor of the Wall Street Journal, David Wessell,  for "clarification."
Nearly the first thing out of his reeking gob was a blithe, off-hand repetition of the canard that the biggest problem going forward was "the growth in entitlements."
And there was NO even remotely skeptical voice heard from NPR.

Now, an even modestly intelligent person of ordinary, critical faculties might wonder WHY an ostensibly 'non-partisan' radio program would invite a representative of the most recalcitrant attacker of "entitlements,' one Rupert Murdoch--OWNER of the WSJ and dozens of other right-wing rags--to be the sole and only explicator of these intricacies. There ARE other possible commentators: Dean Baker, Joe Stiglitz, even the "Shrill One,"Paul Krugman, etc. Any of them could have answered the questions.
But NPR CHOSE to enlist a man who contributes to the MOST reactionary editorial board in North America, and he named the "usual suspects," and the drooling drones and mephitic minions of the most CORRUPT "Boss" on the planet never uttered a fuuking PEEP.

THAT'S why I have 1) cancelled my donation and 2) why I no longer defile my smoky, dusty domain with their feculent codswallop.
Here's the segment:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=172373131&m=172373122

What Would Jesus Do?

Lee Camp: Empire's in Decline Make Celebs of Their Chefs

The Journey of the Sperm: Sex Ed from BBC

Did We Go To The Moon? Why It Matters...

I REALLLY wish he hadn't disabled the comments. There would have been considerable opportunities for schadenfreude as the heads exploded...

Clean Water for EVERYONE? A Dream No Longer...

SLINGSHOT | Paul Lazarus from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

This is Slingshot, the aptly named water purification device that is now taking on a Goliath of a challenge, the worlds clean water supply.

Slingshot was created by Dean Kamen who’s best known for inventing the Segway PT. The idea was inspired by the World Heath Organization (WHO) statistics that portray a rather shocking story of 900 million people across the globe without a readily available supply of drinking water and around 3.5 million people many children under 5 dying annually with diseases related to unclean water.

The world’s surface is about two-thirds water yet only about 1% is fresh potable water with the large percentage making up saline oceans and ice. Slingshots objective is to tap into this vast resource creating drinkable water that is readily available and inexpensive to produce.

Climate Change: A Postscript

 

 

 

(In 10-minute segments is the only way I can find it Click on the link for all 10 subsequent sections.) I copied the following comments from the Fbook correspondent, one Marco Spinelli, who introduced me to this.

 James Burke of "Connections"-fame produced an excellent program about 30 years ago called "After The Warming" that you can see online. It's done as if it's 2050 with Burke looking back over the history of the world's climate changes and the effect that cyclical warming and cooling has had on the development of animal, vegetation, and civilization. Up until the industrial revolution, and how what's happening is man-made, how we know that it's man-made, and how fast it's happening. In less than one generation, human civilization on the planet is going to irrevocably break down. Mass die-off of species, specifically humans, from a whole host of assaults (famine, drought, disease, pandemics, wars, etc.).

If every Fox viewer saw it, they might be convinced, but it wouldn't matter; it's too late.

What's happening politically now is that the world leaders are arranging for the time when chaos will be the order of the day. The loss of civil liberties, setting up for martial law, endless wars, etc. I think they're giving the 'haves' one last bite at the apple, to amass as much wealth as they can, to move their families to high ground for the coming bad times. The US is positioning itself much like the Roman Empire did, and will take what it wants through military might - Not for we ordinary mortals, mind you, but for the survival of the elites.

I think it's obvious that the decision was made some time ago, like several decades ago, that the US wasn't going to respond and try to avert the catastrophe. Too many people to get on board, too much work, and altruistic work at that. It was a cynical and corrupt decision, with greed controlling it, with the likes of Jim Baker and the Bushes making fortunes by the decision (in oil). War industries were another venue for amassing great wealth, and that's the path that Cheney took.

In the late 1990s, when the bubbles were taking shape, I estimated that those who didn't have a net worth of, at least, $250,000 wouldn't stand a chance, but I'm revising that upwards to $5 million. That's just bare bones, to keep from dying from an inability to purchase food and water, and keep a roof over your head that you don't have to trade watch duty with family and friends to keep marauders out.

Bleak? You bet. But we have to start talking about it and demanding politicians address it.

Watch "After The Warming" with your families and friends. It's somewhere to begin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oFjy5FORbo&list=PL16E277DDB6723CC0

Corporate Welfare Bums! The Return of Ascher Platts

We are Star-dust: Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the Periodic Table

Lewis Black on Guns, Lately:

Fugelsang Takes On "Creationism"

Trouble with parable and metaphor:

Advertizing: Pernicious but SOME of It Is...

JUST TOO FUUKIN FUNNY!

Bill Moyers, w/ Yves Smith and some nominal GOPhuq for "balance."

You cannot fault Moyers for not being earnest or well-meaning enough. But for all that, he's pretty fucking ineffectual.

The REAL News: Bill Black--Going Nuclear & The Fiscal Cliff Fraud

Ed Asner Pisses On, and Pisses Off, the Owners

Tax the fucking rich!
What this country needs is a totally confiscatory inheritance: after bequethals of up to but no more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS per heir per estate, everything else reverts directly to the Public Treasury. Nobody should get, or deserves, or has in any way earned, MORE than a million dollars' worth of unearned privilege.

And PHUCK "PHILANTHROPY." That's mainly just a way for the wealthy CorpoRat zombie capitalists to ensure that they control their fortunes from beyond the grave. FUCK 'EM!

Exxon (e.g.) Hates Your Kids!

Folks are collecting money( ?), signatures (?) , or something to try to get this spot onto the SCUM/MSM/CorpoRat media.
As salutary an event as it would certainly be, I'd bet there aren't 10 MSM/SCUM/CorpoRat TV-stations in the whole country that would accept/run such an ad.
It's gotta go VIRAL on the TUBEZ!
Repost, and do your part!

Blasphemy: "Discouraging" Words???

Religious "crimes" are all "thought" crimes. Apostasy. Blasphemy. Heresy. Sacrilege.

Truth ("Trud?"), With A Grain of Salt

The "Yes Men" are the utter BAWMB!
RT, we shouldn't forget, is an instrument (tool) of the Russian State propaganda machine, the same guys who do/did Pravda, Isvestia, and Trud in the bad old days...
The Yes Men won't show up on your CorporRat/SCUM/MSM "press."

Remembering Walter Cronkite

What Cronkite had was the respect of his audience. He was the real deal. He'd stood under German bombs, asnd kept his voice steady, and reported. According to his Wiki bio, Cronkite was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress part of group called the Writing 69th,^[18] and during a mission fired a machine gun at a German fighter.^[19] He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne in Operation Market-Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials^[20] and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948.^[21]
A dinosaur.
Everybody knew it even at the time. He was the last of his kind. About him LBJ lamented, when he lost Cronkite in '68, he lost the country on the War.
Via the expedient of "media consolidation" (a polite term for seizing the media--which is what guerrillas ALWAYS do when the Coup is in process), the oligarchs, owners, and Oners have seen to it that we'll NEVER see his like again.

Remember when we could trust a journalist? If you ever could, it died with Cronkite...

Everybody Cheats! And Rationalizes, Professionally

Oh NOZE! We're Under Attack By "Che Grovera!"

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Making Fun of Religions: "Cleaning Your Holy Whiteys"

Why? Because we CAN!

The FIRST Mistake Is Believing The Media Have A "Choice"

This is naive twaddle.

Some folks apparently believe that USer's media have some modicum of CHOICE or autonomy?

 Aren't you cute? Does your mommy know you're out this late?

FACTS: The "media" is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 6 mega-corpoRats. It's not "selling us out." It's just binness...they do what they are told. That's their job.

And everybody who's anybody has known it, for over 100 years. Listen. These are the words which outline, in prospect, what became the common-sense among the "Serious" people of that age:

"If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it… In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons … who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” 

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” 

“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized.” 

“The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions.” 

“Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos.”

“It is not necessary for the politician to be the slave of the public’s group prejudices, if he can learn how to mold the mind of the voters in conformity with his own ideas of public welfare and public service. The important thing for the statesman of our age is not so much to know how to please the public, but to know how to sway the public.” 

 The author of those painfully forthright sentiments: Edward Bernays--Freud's favorite nephew, the "father" of Public Relations, and a vital, central member of Woodrow Wilson's war-promoting brain-trust, in the teens and 20s of the last Century:

The media consolidation blitz of the 80s and 90s ensured their complete and irreversible completion of the propaganda project. By mid-century, the noted French sociologist Jacques Ellul would declare that propaganda was the ONLY way that the Modern State could communicate with its citizens. It was less useful against external opponents than against their OWN citizens. It must ALWAYS "spin" information, purpose it, direct it toward the State's ends.

And so, as ANYONE with the perspicacity of a mud-bug should be able to attest, it has turned out.

Marxism for People Who THINK They Understand Marxism, By Prof. Richard Wolff

Professor Wolff discusses that which the crisis has made possible in relation to Marxism during this lecture given at The Brecht Forum on July 29, 2012 as part of their Annual Intensive Introduction to Marxism.

What's Wrong With "Welfare?"

Melissa Harris-Perry gets all right up in the GRILL of this conservatard beyotch!
The comments are beyond stomach-turning.

The Pusilanimous Pundit

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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I thought Tom Brokaw was his usual, in-fucking-SUFFERABLE, self-serving, ass-licking, self-approving, self-excusing DICKish self on TDSWJS, last night;  a part which he played so successfully all those years when he played a "newsman" on television. He was quick with a quip about the Dims and GOPhux, but when the subject turned to the CorpoRat/SCUM/MSM "press," he was almost tongue-tied in his eagerness to excuse them and himself.

Stewart--whose gig is MEDIA criticism, not simply politics--pressed Brokaw (who should return 1/26th to his life-long salary for NEVER having been able to pronounce the letter "L") on the MEDIA--the MAINSTREAM MEDIA, of which Brokaw is now one of the living "legends"-- on their "performance" in NOT holding the GOPhux speakers in Tampa to any kind of, you know, umm, standards of actual, fucking "TRUTH," and Brokaw almost swallowed his tongue in evasions and temporizing bullshit! What a fucking, truckling WEAKLING the man is.

The first two segments have some funny lines, though...link to them here: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-september-4-2012-tom-brokaw?xrs=synd_facebook

Pippa Goes Postal

Lee Camp Follows the (BIG) Money

The Public Cover-Up

Revolutions occur, mainly, when people--especially young men who see their reproductive options effectively foreclosed by lack of opportunity to support the families their biologies demand--decide they have nothing to lose.

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.

But when you have ANYTHING, then you have EVERYTHING to lose.

That's the chance (hell, it's pretty much a certainty) when revolutions happen: burned-out businesses and houses, infrastructure shattered, wrecked and blackened cars, dead dogs in the streets. That's one reason why "home ownership" is such a central part of the American dream.

What? You thought it was "natural?" Nah. Allowing the proles to "own" their homes (usually an elaborate leasing deal, subject to revocation at any time, rather than a "purchase," per se) is a prophylactic against disquiet, unrest, and kolob forbid, outright revolt.

The "people" are not, for the most part, I believe "fat, dumb and happy." Rather they are fat, dumb, and terrified, and have sunk into self-protective inertia. Like a pangolin caught among lions, they're rolled up tight, with their vulnerable bellies inside, and a spiky array of armor-plates to keep the lion off.

Of course, the success of the maneuver depends to a large extent on the size and ferocity of one's attacker. A pangolin may thwart a lion this way, but armadillos rely on the same stratagem, and it doesn't work at ALL well against cars...

Ronnie Raygun's Historic Legacy: He's #1?

News Corps Properties, as of July 27, 2012

Rupert Murdoch's News Corps is one of th five or six corporate entities which own and control around 95% of the media production and programming outlets in the USofA.

Their holdings include:

Television
Cable Television
FOX News Channel
FOX Business Network
FOX College Sports
Fox Deportes
Fox Movie Channel
Fox Pan American Sports (33%)
Fox Regional Sports Networks
FOX Soccer Channel
FOX Sports Enterprises
FOX Sports Net
Big Ten Network (49%)
FSN
FUEl TV
FX
Nat Geo Wild (71%)
National Geographic Channel United States (71%)
SPEED
STAR
Stats, Inc. (50%)
Fox Television Stations
WAGA (Atlanta)
KTBC (Austin)
WUTB (Baltimore)
WFXT (Boston)
WFLD (Chicago)
WPWR (Chicago)
KDFW (Dallas)
KDFI (Dallas)
WJBK (Detroit)
KRIV (Houston)
KTXH (Houston)
KTTV (Los Angeles)
KCOP (Los Angeles)
WHBQ (Memphis)
KMSP (Minneapolis)
WFTC (Minneapolis)
WNYW (New York City)
WWOR (New Jersey)
WOGX (Ocala-Gainesville)
WRBW (Orlando)
WOFL (Orlando)
WTXF (Philadelphia)
KUTP (Phoenix)
KSAZ (Phoenix)
WTVT (Tampa Bay)
WTTG (Washington D.C.)
WDCA (Washington D.C.)
Satellite Television
BSkyB (39%)
FOXTEL (25%)
Sky Deutschland
SKY Italia
Sky Network Television Limited (44%)
TATA Sky (20%)
International Television Stations
FOX Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America
FOX CRIME Europe and Asia
FOX LIFE Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America
FOX MOVIES Asia and Middle East
FOX NEXT Europe
FOX RETRO Europe and Africa
FOX SPORTS Europe, Africa, and Latin America
FOX Telecolombia (51%)
AQUAVISION PRODUCTIONS Africa (51%)
Asianet (75%)
BABY TV Europe, Asia and Latin America
CHANNEL [V]
CHANNEL [V] Asia
CULT Europe
ESPN STAR Sports (50%)
FX Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America
Hathway Cable and Datacom (17%)
LAPTV (Movie City Pack, Cinecanal, and The Film Zone) (55%)
National Geographic International Channels (52%)
Nat Geo Adventure Europe and Asia
Nat Geo Music Europe, Africa and Asia
Nat Geo Wild Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America
NHNZ PRODUCTIONS Asia
Phoenix Satellite Television (18%)
Premier Media Group (50%)
Rotana (9%)
SPEED Latin America
STAR Chinese Channel
STAR Chinese Movies
STAR Den (50%)
STAR GOld
STAR Movies
STAR MOVIES Asia
Star News (26%)
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Bill Moyers Gets All Huffy About Pay-to-Speak

And I wish he, and all the rest of the leftish commentariat would just stop being so fucking polite! The asswholes who are oppressing us--from shit-sticks like Frank Luntz and Karl Rove on up--do NOT deserve your politesse. They are not, and have repeatedly and remorselessly demonstrated that they are not, and never will be, men of men to whom honor is a familiar term. Bill Moyers gets a bit energized in this clip. But he's not talking to anyone to their faces, which is where you HAVE to get all up in their pious, hypocritical, amoral faces and make them show themselves.

Bill Moyers Revisits Justice Brandeis, Comes To Same Conclusion

"One may have great wealth in a few hands, or one my have a democracy." Not both...

Bill Maher, on 14-Yr-Old "Conservatives:"

Is there a charity I can give to, like "Wedgies, without Borders."
Not to Conservatards: If your boilerplate sounds strange and stilted in the mouth of a 14-yr-old boy, imagine what it sounds like when ADULTS say shit like that!

High Court, Including Obama "Liberal" (St. Sonia), Butt Fucks Labor Unions

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

Put another way: The SCROTUS today handed down a ruling that shoved yet another hot, rough poker up the already bleeding ass of the Union movement, ruling 7-2 (with Ginsberg and Santa Sonia with the MAJORITY) which:
"....dealt an election-year blow to public-sector unions with a ruling that limits their ability to collect money for use in political campaigns from non-union employees at workplaces where a union is the bargaining agent.
The ruling comes in the wake of a major struggle over the rights of public-sector workers in which unions failed in their effort to recall Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker who’d signed a law curtailing the power of public sector unions.
The court said Thursday that non-union workers who benefit from union representation must affirmatively choose, or “opt in,” to having their “agency fees” used when a special dues increase or assessment is going to be used for political purposes. Simply giving them the option of opting out is not sufficient to protect their rights, the court held."
Only the Kagan and Breyer dissented...MSNBC tells it almost with relish.

Bill Moyers: Hey Buddy, Do Ya Wanna Buy A Law, Real Cheap?

Start up a Super-PAC. No. Really! It works!

Critical, Satirical SNL Vid, Banned in 1998?

The 1998 Robert Smigel animated short film "Conspiracy Theory Rock", part of a March 1998 "TV Funhouse" segment, has been removed from all subsequent airings of the Saturday Night Live episode where it originally appeared. Michaels claimed the edit was done because it "wasn't funny". The film is a scathing critique of corporate media ownership, including NBC's ownership by General Electric/Westinghouse. 

There Do Seem To Be Some Ambiguities In The Public Record

Richard Wolfe: America's Most Respectable Marxist

These Tuesday evenings will each begin with an update and analysis of major economic events of the last month and their contexts of longer-term economic trends shaping politics and society here and abroad. We will focus on the evolving global capitalist economic crisis and its consequences. We will examine topics such as the social costs effects of the historic long-term US unemployment, national debt crises and "austerity programs" in Greece, Ireland, Spain, and beyond changes in today's Chinese economy and their global effects, tax reform and the entire tax issue in the US today, continuing crisis in the US housing and credit markets the economics of immigration. Actual economic developments will shape the agenda for each monthly Tuesday meeting. Rick Wolff, with occasional guests, will present an economic update and an analysis of some particular economic topics and then open the floor to questions, comments and a general discussion of where the US and world economies are going and the political implications. We aim to develop participants' understanding of and ability to explain to others the key economic developments of our time. Richard D. Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at U. Mass, and Visiting Professor at the New School University. Author of Capitalism Hits the Fan, he's been a guest on NPR, Glenn Beck Show, and Democracy Now!

Daniel Dennett: "How To Tell You're An Atheist."

The TED Talk TED Won't Show You

Nick Hanauer debunks the Capitalist economic mythology from the INSIDE. Special privileges, up close and personal.

The Robin Hood Tax: 50 Cents on a 100-Dollar Trade

If "Reform" Can Happen, It'll Look Like This:

Joshua Foer: On Memorable Memories

I really LIKE these TED productions. In this one, Joshua Foer, a writer/journalist and pretty bright fella (I think he wrote a book about READING the Encyclopedia Britannica) takes us back to a time even before WRITING which, as Plato intuited, was the enemy of Memory.

Mr. Deity and Joseph Smith Do The "Latter Daze"

Lee Camp: Oinky Gets Fatter!

CENK to CNN: "Just Fucking STOP" Imitating FAUX/MSNBC

He's right, of course. "He said/She said" reporting is little better than stenography, which is the style/strategy of Faux Nooz, especially. Watch Cenk on Current TV:

CNN just had their lowest ratings in a decade. They are in disastrous shape. When I was on MSNBC, we would beat them with a stick. Even after "pro-CNN" stories like revolutions in Egypt and Libya, Japanese nuclear meltdowns and the killing of Osama bin Laden (CNN does much better when major news or international stories break out), we still beat them. Now they're doing so poorly I might even catch them on Current. We started at almost nothing on Current, but we have been steadily improving our numbers. Why are we getting traction? Because people want an alternative -- the real news. So, I should just stay quiet and let CNN drive off that cliff. By the way, when I catch Erin Burnett -- which is not that far off because I'm beginning to see her in the distance in the demos -- everyone will know it. Who knows, that might be the event that precipitates CNN re-thinking their entire model. Imagine if a network that started at nearly nothing catches CNN within a year. But I am not going to wait until then to give them some friendly advice. I know they won't perceive it that way, but I am actually trying to help them. So here it is -- for the love of God, stop doing "he said, she said" crap that doesn't actually deliver the news to anyone. Democrats said this and Republicans said that -- who cares? What is the reality?! Your job is supposed to be to bring us facts, not what official spokespeople told you in their press releases and talking points. The problem is that CNN doesn't have the courage to do this. They're afraid it might offend some folks if you tell the American people reality. I want to be clear; I'm not saying they should give us opinion. There's plenty of that in other parts of cable, including my show. They're never going to out-opinion me. But if Mitt Romney says his proposal balances the budget, well, why don't you crunch the numbers and tell us whether that's true or not? Of course the reality is that it creates trillions of dollars in deficits just so that the rich can have more tax cuts. But CNN would consider reporting those facts as being biased. If the Giants play the Cowboys and beat them silly, it is not biased to report that they won. You don't have a pro-Giants bias if you report the score. I'm a progressive but I have no interest in CNN skewing issues in favor of Democrats. By all means, call them out just as aggressively. The Democratic Party takes huge amounts of cash from corporations and unions to vote a certain way. My God, CNN doesn't even cover the role of money in politics. They take politicians at their word. Are you kidding? It seems like the people who work at CNN are the last people in the country who actually trust our politicians. Congressional approval ratings were recently at 11 percent. How well do you think you're going to do on television if you're sucking up to those guys? By the way, following along with artificially created Fox News scandals doesn't give you balance. It makes you sad and pathetic. There are plenty of real Democratic scandals without falling into the rubbish Fox talks about. How much money does Chuck Schumer take from Wall Street? What favors does he give them in return? Why do Democratic leaders keep writing legislation rigged against the Internet -- could it have something to do with the tremendous amount of cash they take from Hollywood companies? Why does President Obama get a free pass on following George Bush's civil liberties abuses like warrantless wiretapping and indefinite detentions? In other words, do your job -- report the news. The real news, not dueling talking points and manufactured controversies. My God, where is your investigative team? What's the last story you broke? Of course, the reality is that you don't want to break stories about Washington because that might offend some people. What kind of a so-called news operation is this afraid of their own shadow? "Oh my God, what if we offended someone in power. They might not come on our shows anymore and they might call us biased." Or they might call you journalists. Sam Donaldson was on our show a long time ago and told us a really cool story about his old boss at ABC News, Roone Arledge. He said when he was covering the Reagan White House (and later the Clinton White House, too), whenever the administration called up to complain about him, Arledge would give him a raise. How far away from that model are we now? When politicians call up to complain now, "news" executives wet themselves in fear. Stand up to them! Do journalism! Challenge government! And you know something amazing might happen -- people might actually watch you again.

Jared Diamond: Why Societies Fail (TED)

From Greenland to Montana! A checklist:

Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it. Jared Diamond is an award-winning scholar of ecology, biology and history, and best-selling author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

Das Kapital in Pictures

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but it's never nor relevant. David Harvey is the most urbane, cosmopolitan Marxist spokesperson in some time.

In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

"Earth Days," A PBS/"American Experience" Production

On Earth Day, it is good to watch this almost 2-hour documentary for the perspective.
PBS's show "Earth Days" (http://video.pbs.org/video/1463378089/), first shown in 2010, ironically appeared just 12 days before the catastrophic blow-out of the BP/Macando deep-water/deep-plate well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mostly it presents pretty much an iron-clad indictment of the "best minds of corpoRat America" as being, in fact, a pack of venal, self-aggrandizing, clueless/deluded fucktards and predatory capitalist ideologues. In the first 30 seconds of the later "convo" segment, they bring on the CEO of Duke Power who praises this "industry" for 'working with' environmentalists, and host Ray Suarez just grins and glad-hands the fucker and truckles becomingly.

Gaaaah!

Watch Earth Days on PBS. See more from American Experience.

The American Myth Machine And It's Disquiets

"The national "myth" elevates, exaggerates and aggrandizes the people's own self-regard." Bingo! No small addition to which was accomplished with much fanciful fanfare and grateful tears in Jan, 2009, when "we" inaugurated the "First Black American President," thereby reifying yet another mythic, egalitarian trope constituent of the"American dream": Anyone can grow up to be president!

ALEC Smarting? Lee Camp...

Imagine the World Without ALEC.
What would be the appropriate acronym for its replacement?
Cuz there'll BE a replacement...

Who DO "Drama"????

This is pretty close to genius marketing.

Mr. Deity Gets Counseling

JUST in time for Easter!
This is deeply, darkly funny stuff--mah FAVOR8 KINE!

Branching Out: The Mr. Deity Gang Does "Hetero-Repair"

The Way of the Mister!

WWH Citizens' Dispatch, March 31, 2012: God Damm 'Em

The Constitution forbids any "religious" test for aspirants for public office.

I always thought that it forbade requiring any particular "religious" affiliation as a qualification for office...

But now I wonder: Why couldn't we PROHIBIT those 'religious' folks with leadership roles in their "churches" from BEING ELECTED to public office, since their FIRST loyalty will NEVER be the State, but ALWAYS to their fucking "gods?" They CANNOT serve botrh "god" and "mammon"; it's the plainest KIND of conflict of interest.

"Reason" ~~ Adam Savage at the Reason Rally

Testable, replicable predictions...

Lee Camp: Alibi Fragrances

Los Alamos, NM, circa 1943

Props to my old pal Mike Lord for discovering this. IIrc, kids born in Los Alamos during the Project all have the same Santa Fe post office box as their "residence."

As late as the mid-'50s, there were still manned machine-gun posts around the perimeter, and a gate manned by armed MPs.

n 1943, the top scientists from the United States and other nations gathered in Los Alamos, NM for the Manhattan Project. Among them was physicist Hugh Bradner. With informal permission from the U.S. Army, he shot a collection of home movies of life in a place that officially didn't exist, and of people working on a project that ultimately changed history. His footage represents the only look at life in the Los Alamos area during that time. LA-UR 11-4449.

Lee CAMP, MOC # 122...

Science IS for EVERYONE!

Life, The Universe, and Everything: HIppies Get It Right

I don't know who the person doing the explanation is, but he's right ON!

OWS/OCCUPY: This Week in Insurgency

Press TV's new program; 'OWS Week' highlights 7 days of the protest movement's happenings as viewed from American protesters' eyes.

The program also examines the wide range of social issues addressed by the 'occupy' movement in the US.

This episode of the show returns to the Bradley Manning trial to expand on the charges brought against the incarcerated US serviceman, reports on 99ers camp evictions and the remaining outposts and gives an overview of the week that has passed.