February 10, 2010 archive

Slow Wheel, Fleeting Wheel

Crossposted from The Wild Wild Left


February 1, 2023

My Love,

The wheels of human history turn slowly, while our lives spin all too briefly. My turn is now ending, my love, another snowflake turned to rain in the freefall, again to soak the Earth on a warm spring day.



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We thought we were making history, in those days of our youth. I cannot say we did, I cannot say we did not. Perhaps you still are.

I have to remember that to those of us who lived through the Dark Ages, it seemed reality eternal, to those of us who lived through the invasions of the Huns, that life would never return to goodness and light. Eternities of unrelenting oppression in our firefly lives.

It is worthy to note, those eras passed too and progress inched along in fits and starts completely generated by, and with no regard for, the grain of sand lives that passed beneath the behemoth wheels of our histories.

Lives such as ours.

Guantanamo Torture Document {UpDated}

The following is just coming across the wires here. This is about an ongoing battle to get top secret records on the torture of prisoners at Gitmo and probably other secret jails that were used as we were grabbing so called terrorists all over and most not caught on some “in theater battle field”.

This is just on one British citizen who was Ethiopian born and grabbed in 2002 in Pakistan, not Afghanistan nor Iraq. And this is only seven short paragraphs on his, Binyam Mohamed’s, treatment while in U.S. custody and incommunicado with anyone thousands of miles from home and family.  

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning


Snow Globe

(Click on image for larger view)

Then I thought that needed some oomph and achieved what is inside…

War With Iran Tomorrow?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Feb. 11 would mark the demise of “the liberal capitalist system,”   adding that its champion, America, was on the decline and that Iran and its Islamic Revolution were on the rise.

According to a Jan. 28 translation from BBC Monitoring Middle East, Ahmadinejad spoke on official Iranian television, saying that this year’s “Ten Days of Dawn” celebration, marking the anniversary of the country’s Islamic Revolution, would see the “demise” of the American system.

“I believe that 22 Bahman [ February 11 in the Persian calendar] this year marks the demise of the liberal capitalist system.” Ahmadinejad said.

Iran’s supreme leader said the country will deliver a ‘punch’ that will stun the West to mark tomorrow’s 31st anniversary of its Islamic Revolution.

In an address to air force leaders, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: ‘The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [February 11] in a way that will leave them stunned.’

Daniel Pipes is making the case for Obama.

(Obama) needs a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a light-weight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations.

Such an opportunity does exist: Obama can give orders for the U.S. military to destroy Iran’s nuclear-weapon capacity.

Circumstances are propitious.

McLaughlin & Associates, May 2009: When asked whether they would support “using the [U.S.] military to attack and destroy the facilities in Iran which are necessary to produce a nuclear weapon,” 58 percent of 600 likely voters supported the use of force and 30 percent opposed it.

Fox News, September 2009: When asked “Do you support or oppose the United States taking military action to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons?” 61 percent of 900 registered voters supported military action and 28 opposed it.

And Sarah Palin is already on board!

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

China dumping riskier U.S. securities?

Earlier today, Karl Denninger double-dog-dared China to start dumping US bonds, arguing that the Chinese were at the mercy of U.S. Presidential fiat with respect to (a) the value of China’s reserves and (b) our superior military.  He may be right, but that won’t stop the Chinese from dumping other assets in an escalation of…one thing or another:

Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. The Chinese government has ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and hold only Treasuries and US agency debt with an implicit or explicit government guarantee. This already has been communicated to American securities dealers, according to market participants with direct knowledge of the events.

It is not clear whether China’s motive is simple risk aversion in the wake of a sharp widening of corporate and mortgage spreads during the past two weeks, or whether there also is a political dimension. With the expected termination of the Federal Reserve’s special facility to purchase mortgage-backed securities next month, some asset-backed spreads already have blown out, and the Chinese institutions may simply be trying to get out of the way of a widening. There is some speculation that China’s action has to do with the recent deterioration of US-Chinese relations over arm sales to Taiwan and other issues. That would be an unusual action for the Chinese to take-Beijing does not mix investment and strategic policy-and would be hard to substantiate in any event.

One zerohedger views this as political retaliation.

Anyway, we’ve always been at war with […].  I’m sure it bodes well for all.  

The Daily Kos wingnut poll

I was just perusing the DK wingnut poll.

Republicans generally strongly (but hardly unanimously) dislike socialism, labor, immigrants, gays, abortion; and deeply love Christ and the death penalty (Ironic, love is).  On other issues, their uncertainty increases.  

Hardcore wingnuts are frequently the anus within the larger Republican ass, taking up around a third of the party.  While that is indeed large for an anus, what is it, about 15% of the country’s entire population?   Hardly representative of the country as a whole, and entirely over-represented in the media, but I guess we knew that also.

Men are slightly, but consistently wingnuttier than women; Southerners are significantly and consistently wingnuttier that non-Southerners; whites are significantly and consistently wingnuttier than non-whites; age-related differences in wingnuttiness do not stand out, except for some slightly, but consistently greater tolerance of sex and reproductive issues in younger groups (Both innovation and sex are typically more youthful phenomena).

Real Wingnuts:  whiter, Southerner, maler, somewhat older, and secessionister.  Old wounds, dawg.

***

Wingnut political mobilization is little more than a clamorous alarm call spread by contagion, a primitive but effective hue and cry common to many animal species.  The over-representation of wingnut memes in the media is a huge problem.  However, that alarm call potentially cries in all directions.  A lot of Republicans appear to be significantly less immoderate and more uncertain than their hardcore base on many issues.  If anyone could ever sit them down to explain, for example, what Medicare, Social Security and socialism are, and who is really trying to steal it or privatize it, that would be meaningful.

I hope a subsequent poll asks some specific questions about these safety net issues, plus some further things about their beliefs on capitalism, free markets, small businesses, monopolies, bank bailouts, government-controlled mortgage industries, etc.

Overnight Caption Contest

BREAKING: Democrats endorse single payer!

This is for real.

When it finally came time for the Committee to meet and vote the result was almost anti-climactic. Jack Hanna, the Chair of the Rules Committee said that there that there was “great concensus in support of this resolution” and urged that the entire membership be permitted to consider it.” Democratic Chair T.J. Rooney shepherded the resolution to the floor, and in seconds it was over. The resolution was passed by acclamation.

McCain and DSHEA

Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act Sounds nice don’t it, but like everything else these people propose it is really Codex Alimentarius, that pile of horsemanure under yet another name.  In Canada it was bill C6.

http://vitaminlawyerhealthfree…

I do so love it when people speak truth.

The terms of this bill further the Globalist Eugenicide Agenda in that it seeks to treat dietary supplements, which are foods and therefore ought to be deemed safe if used as directed, as though they were toxins (while, of course, the agency treats the real dangers – GMOs, food additives, dangerous drugs, vaccines and industrial toxins as though they were perfectly safe).

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