The Truthiness About Oswald

Trouble reading it?  Go here.

Why Gerald Ford, you may ask? Because Ford was the FBI's inside man on the Warren Commission, faithfully reporting each day's information back to his masters, to make sure the correct damage control was applied.

And how were you rewarded... Mr. President?

PS to Rage Against The Kennedy Cover-Up

I just caught up with the BBC Mark Mardell's report from Dallas on the Kennedy Murder Anniversary. His solution to the Coward's Dilemma about whether to tell the truth, was to point to the infamous brick building where Lee Harvey Oswald worked, and say "shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository....

Here's the original Rage Against The Kennedy Cover-Up, in case you missed it:

I wasn't going to talk about the Assassination of JFK - everybody else is doing that.

But I've just watched "France 24" - French TV News - report the old lie, "Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the Texas Book Depository", etc, etc.  For God's sake, when will these cowards who call themselves journalists start telling the truth?

The House Committee on Assassinations - that is to say, The United States Congress, people - found... but let seasoned journalist-investigator Bob Katz tell it:

"The House Select Committee on Assassinations, headed by Robert Blakey, a former Justice Department prosecutor, was a two-year probe that included hundreds of interviews, the discovery of new evidence, scientific tests on new and old evidence, plus the most extensive review of available FBI, CIA, Secret Service and Warren Commission files. The HSCA final report stated bluntly that President Kennedy "probably was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."

Didn't know that, huh? Not mentioned in your American history textbook? Well, why would that be?"

In order to believe that Oswald acted alone, you have to accept that

"a single bullet, known as "Warren Commission Exhibit 399" , caused all the wounds to the governor and the non-fatal wounds to the president.
"According to the Single Bullet Theory, a three-centimeter (1.2")-long copper-jacketed lead-core 6.5-millimeter rifle bullet fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository passed through President Kennedy’s neck and Governor Connally’s chest and wrist and embedded itself in the Governor’s thigh. If so, this bullet traversed 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. The bullet was mysteriously found on a gurney in the hospital corridor ."*

Is that what the mainstream Press believe?  Gimme a break!

You can read Bob Katz's article, complete with the famous Abraham Zapruder film, here.

*Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-bullet_theory

Sign to overthrow Citizens United

Senator Al Franken says:

"Our new effort to reverse the effects of Citizens United was pretty exciting even back when it was just the seven of us -- me; fellow Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown, Mark Begich, Kay Hagan, and Tom Udall; and Democratic Congressmen Bruce Braley and Gary Peters.

But now, 91,314 supporters have signed up to join us. This thing is starting to take off!

And we’ll really be cooking when we hit 150,000 signers -- something I’m hoping you can help with.

Click here to add your name and help us to stop Citizens United in 2014!

Remember, this is bigger than one election. This is about whether the people will continue to have the final word in our democracy, or whether powerful corporate special interests will be able to buy the government and shut out the voices of middle class Americans.

And this movement has to be bigger than just us elected officials. Reversing the effects of a Supreme Court decision is a serious undertaking, and only a well-organized, super-powerful grassroots effort will get the job done.

Fortunately, we’re well on our way, with 91,314 people already on board.

Be our next signer -- and help us get to 150,000 by December -- by clicking here and adding your name to stop Citizens United!

We’re well on our way. But we have a lot of work left to do. My fellow Democratic Senators and candidates are ready to take this fight to the next level -- and we need you with us."

Today's Fun Link, 11/24/13

Health Care Premiums: A Non-Surprise - fun animation

A Glimpse Into How the Senate Works

This just in from BoldProgressives.org -

"Senate Democrats finally voted to end the filibuster of presidential appointments this week, after years of tolerating Republican obstruction.

As Elizabeth Warren told activists yesterday, Senator Jeff Merkley has been "leading the fight for filibuster reform from the very beginning."

Merkley is up for re-election in 2014. Can you donate $3 to his campaign to ensure Elizabeth Warren continues having this strong ally in the Senate?

It's sometimes been lonely for Sen. Merkley as he tried to convince his colleagues to make the Senate functional again.

The Huffington Post reported a few months ago that at a "closed-door caucus meeting, Merkley was upbraided... for breaking unspoken Senate rules and naming specific senators [who needed pressure] in a conference call with Democratic activists."

The vote this week was a narrow 52 to 48. A few Democrats voted wrong. That means Merkley's months of work, and outside grassroots pressure, were absolutely needed."

[It's up to you whether you want to donate to Merkley, but I thought the peek behind the scenes was salutary....]

A New Thought on Capitalism?

Is this A New Thought on Capitalism?

Maybe just to my tiny brain....

Last Tuesday "Three Studies of Lucian Freud", a triptych painting by the late British artist Francis Bacon, sold at a Christie’s auction in New York City for $142,405,000.

According to this article, which speculates at length about which well-heeled collector may have bought the picture(s), "Bacon pretty openly detested the idea of art selling for exorbitant profits. As he once said, “Prices are so ridiculous that people go to galleries because they are obsessed by the money.”"

Another favorite, and perhaps the most dramatic example of the "profitable painter syndrome", is poor old Vincent Van Gogh, the doomed genius who gave us "Starry Night" and dozens of other masterpieces, including an amazingly penetrating series of self-portraits -

one of the less-known Van Gogh self-portraits, from 1887

As we know, Vincent Van Gogh never sold a single canvas in his tormented lifetime, yet now his paintings change hands for millions of Dollars.

`“Portrait of Dr. Gachet," the most expensive painting by the troubled Dutch artist who was born in 1853 and died in 1890 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was sold at Christie’s New York in 1990 for $82.5 million. Of the artist’s top ten paintings sold at auction, all have cost over $20 million but only one has come up at auction after 2000, according to data from Artnet, which tracks auction results.' - the Wall Street Journal tells us.

(The WSJ article tells how a Van Gogh which has long been thought to be fake, is suddenly not-fake - and therefore worth a fortune.  But that's not what we're talking about.)

Back in the 80s, as I recall it, Tokyo Banks had so much capital washing around that they didn't know where to put it. One of the solutions they found to this "problem", was to sink millions into paintings, which would either hang on the boardroom wall, or more likely, languish in an air-conditioned vault until their price rose enough to bring in the required profit.

Hardly what an artist starving in his garret has in mind as he labors over his hot easel....

I'm sure economists could offer us many ideas about what this means.  If we have an economic system where huge sums of money can be frozen in the form of Art or Jewellery, what does that say about the money ordinary people work all week to earn? Not something I've heard discussed on PBS's spiritual-desert of a program, the "Nightly Business Report".

Here's my tiny contribution to the study - it seems to me that if a tiny handful of the people in the world control the huge preponderance of the planet's wealth, more than they can ever dream of actually consuming, or even seeing, maybe that has something to do with the insanity of chasing prices of masterpieces up and up into the stratosphere, while actual living artists, who would be delighted just to make a living, have to suffer and struggle in the effort to create a little beauty and understanding.

Seems like an argument for 2 or 3 things:

1. Taxes on speculation.

2. Taxes on Art deals, the proceeds from which would go directly to living artists.*

and 3. (Of course) Re-distribution of wealth.

(*I was told decades ago - don't know if it's still true - that in the Netherlands you can be a registered artist and receive a stipend from the Government, in return for which you give the taxman a certain number of Art-pieces a year. It's obviously good for the Artists, but it also works out well for the Government, as they can sell the works later on, and even make a profit on the deal.)

Images I Like, 11/23/13

Socialist Elected

Socialist elected to City Council in Seattle

Kshama Sawant of the Socialist Alternative, has defeated a long-standing Democratic member of the Seattle City Council, Richard Conlin.

Some of her issues: a $15-an-hour minimum wage in Seattle, and a “millionaires’ tax” to pay for better city services.

Sawant is a leading figure in Occupy! Seattle - remember my recent Post, Who Says "Occupy!" Went Away?

Here's a quote from there, just so I can say "told you so" -

"Just like "All the Hippies Became Yuppies", which is one of the crazy-making lies that was never challenged, and which led me to start work on my Book Proposal, "The War On The 60s", we have grown used to hearing claims that "Occupy!" was just a flash in the pan, a movement with no program that vanished into thin air at the first crack of a cop's baton."

The estimable Mitch Jesarich had excellent coverage of the Election and its meaning today in "Letters and Politics", with an interview with the brilliant Nation political writer John Nichols, author of "The "S" Word", a history of Socialism in the USA. (You'd be amazed just how much of the stuff there has been, though you wouldn't think it to hear the mainstream media talk.)

Mitch then played a slightly scratchy interview with Kshama Sawant, followed by one of her election speeches, laying out her proposals for the future. Fascinating stuff. You can hear it on the Archive, here.

Kshama Sawant and Political Tactics

A very interesting article by Dominic Holden of "The Stranger", seemingly a professionally put-together Blog from Seattle, lays out the conventional political wisdom of how Kshama Sawant will inevitably shoot herself in the foot when her abrasive Socialist shit hits the fan of the City Council's cosy, long-established Democratic majority.  

Then he moves on, halfway through the article, to a new approach.  How can you dislike a writer who says "Everything I have written so far is sort of true, but it's also bullshit."?

I love it!  Read on....

"Everything I have written so far is sort of true, but it's also bullshit. That framing is designed to put Sawant on the defensive, and it assumes that Sawant must behave like a "Seattle Nice" politician. It's also questionable to criticize a woman politician for being aggressive—men don't generally get that treatment (McGinn notwithstanding).

"We did not run this campaign to be yet another cog in the machine but with slightly shinier moral credentials," says Sawant. "We are here to make real change happen in a highly unequal society in which a tiny elite holds the power, so clearly you cannot be worried about them being against you, because they are going to be."

If she only holds rallies and refuses to work with her colleagues, yes, that's also a problem. However, she hasn't even been sworn in.

What should be offensive to Seattle is not rough language. It should be offensive if some folks attempt to undermine a candidate—and the voters who elected her—before her first day on the job."

The whole article is here.  It's a goodie....

Today's Interesting Links, 11/21/13

Harry Reid and the Dimmocratic leaders have finally, as Jon Stewart would say, grown a pair!  They can now put reasonable judges on benches with 51 votes in the Senate.

What a concept!  (I believe it's called er..... democracy?)

(The mechanism in question was a party-line vote to change the rule on the filibuster.)

Of course it doesn't apply to that running sore on our society known as the Supreme Court, busy as we speak on their task of selling off more of our election process in 
McCutcheon v. FEC.

..............................................................................................
Senator Elizabeth Warren on the growing Social Security crisis:

"A generation ago, middle class families could put away enough money during their working years to make it through their later years with dignity. But since that time, the retirement landscape has shifted dramatically against our families.

A third of working families on the verge of retirement have no savings of any kind. Another third have total savings less than their annual income. Just as people need to rely more than ever on pensions, employers have replaced guaranteed retirement income with 401(k) plans that leave retirees at the mercy of the market. And 44 million workers don't even have access to that sort of plan.

Add all of this up, and we're left with a retirement crisis – a crisis that is as real and as frightening as any policy problem facing the United States today.

Social Security is incredibly effective, it is incredibly popular, and the calls for strengthening it are growing louder every day. Will you join our national pledge to protect Social Security?"

Who Shot Rock And Roll?

Thanks to my dear friend Rachel for taking me to see the highlights of the Ojai Film Festival - one of the most striking being Who Shot Rock & Roll: The Film, a 37-minute Documentary directed by Steven Kochones and inspired by an exhibition at the Annenberg Space For Photography

"Hear the stories behind rock history’s most enduring images. This film features interviews, photographs and never-before-seen footage spotlighting the work of rock photographers Edward Colver, Henry Diltz, Jill Furmanovsky, Lynn Goldsmith, Bob Gruen, Norman Seeff, Mark Seliger, Guy Webster and, in a special segment, Linda McCartney. Also included are iconic songs by Blondie, The Doors, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Oasis, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, The Who and more."

As well as being just plain rockin' fun, the flick illustrates vividly how important is the rock 'n' roll image to the whole liberating cultural phenomenon of loud, sexy music.

You can watch the trailer, courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival, here.

Still haven't had your fill?  Here's a documentary about the exhibition, with some great shots and cool music.

There's also some fairly interesting background to the exhibition in this Huffpost Article.

Your Interesting Links For 11/16/13

Senator Al Franken says:  "A group of Senators and House members are teaming up and renewing our push to overturn the effects of Citizens United as we hit this important election year!

There’s me and Sherrod Brown, of course, plus other pro-democracy Democratic Senators like Mark Begich, Kay Hagan, and Tom Udall -- and a couple of awesome challengers, Bruce Braley from Iowa and Gary Peters from Michigan.

It’s a fantastic team, and there’s only one member missing: You.

Click here to sign on to our brand new effort to stop the effects of Citizens United!

I don’t need to tell you why Citizens United belongs in the Dumpster of Bad Ideas. Unlimited outside special interest spending? Giving big corporations a pass to buy our elections? No disclosure at all? It’s a mess.

Here’s what I do need: for you to tell me you’ll be part of our new effort to stop this.

My colleagues and I are teaming up, like some sort of anti-special-interest Justice League. But we can’t do it if we don’t each bring our most passionate supporters to this new effort.

Click here today, and join me and other Democrats to fight against Citizens United in 2014!

We’ll be in touch with more on our new effort soon. And thanks for being part of this."

PS to Renisha McBride Story - the Real Guilty Men

“Detroit-based activists and community members gathered in front of the police station of nearby suburb Dearborn Heights Thursday evening”

With all the discussion of "Stand Your Ground" laws, which now rule in 30 of these United States, let us not forget that these laws have been strongly promoted by the rich, powerful and secretive A.L.E.C. - the American Legislative Exchange Council (see my earlier posts on A.L.E.C., such as "The Only Way Republicans Can Stay In Congress...").

A.L.E.C. is strongly backed by the Koch Brothers, David and Charles, both in their seventies, two smugly smiling gentlemen whose family corporation, Koch Industries, has estimated annual revenues of 100 billion dollars (Wikipedia article here).

Here's a 2010 article from the "New Yorker" - what could be more respectable? - on "The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama."

And a hard-hitting video from the redoubtable Robert Greenwald, "Koch Brothers Exposed" - here at its full one-hour length -

Progress Toward Justice for Renisha McBride

Exactly a week ago, on the 9th of November, I posted the ugly story of Renisha McBride -

"Fatally shot for being a young black woman - 

Last Saturday, Renisha McBride got stranded after a car accident in a suburban neighborhood in Detroit. Her cellphone battery was dead, so she went to the nearest house and knocked on the door, planning to ask for help. Instead, unprovoked, the owner of the house fatally shot her in the head.¹

It seems like nothing could more blatantly lead to an arrest. But here's the thing: Michigan is one of the 30 states that has a "Stand Your Ground" Law.² Like in the case of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin in Florida, gun-owners in Michigan are allowed to "shoot first" if they feel someone poses a threat.

In this case, Renisha's killer is claiming he shot her in the face by accident, because he thought she could be a burglar. He has not been arrested."

Today, I can report this from UltraViolet:

"Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy just announced that the man who shot unarmed teen Renisha McBride as she sought help after a car accident will be charged with murder and possession of an illegal firearm.¹

This quick investigation couldn't have happened without the nearly 60,000 of us who demanded action alongside groups like the Detroit NAACP and Color of Change. Together, we made sure yet another story of the senseless shooting of a black teenager didn't go unnoticed.

But our work isn't done. We know from past cases like Trayvon Martin's that Stand Your Ground laws can lead to killers getting away with the murder if they think someone looks "threatening," and Renisha's killer is claiming "self-defense" even though he shot Renisha through a locked screen door.

Can you thank Prosector Kym Worthy for charging Renisha's murderer and let her know we're counting on her to deliver a strong prosecution to get justice for Renisha and her family?

Click here to sign the letter.

Thanks for getting us a step closer toward justice for Renisha.

--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Malinda, Adam, and Gabriela, the UltraViolet team

Source:

1. Renisha McBride's alleged shooter to be charged with murder, ABC News, November 15, 2013

Murder charges against the man who killed Renisha McBride, Fox News Detroit, November 15, 2013"


[BLOGGER'S NOTE:  You might well wonder why it's necessary to thank a law officer for doing what they should have done in the first place - the duty of their office. (Remember that the Florida cops in the Trayvon Martin case saw no reason to prosecute Zimmerman when he killed that other young Black person; they might argue that they knew what verdict a Florida jury would bring in - cynical har har.)
I'm guessing that the activists, thinking like politicos, not unreasonably think that our impartial legal system needs to be reminded that we are watching, and the public will reward, not punish, them for boldly doing the right thing.  Ain't life grand?]

Jon Stewart: "Racist Or Not Racist?"

One of the delights of our "public discourse" in the last few decades, has been the way an expression that begins as a joke, turns into a totally "serious" dominant issue of our times.

Lemme 'splain yer: back in the 80s, people would joke about other people getting their knickers in a twist about whether something was "politically correct".  They were referring to the kind of shallow-minded coward who dare not form his* own views, and then debate them in public. Instead, such individuals would only adopt a position if they felt safe, because their stand was "politically correct" and no one in their neighborhood would challenge them.

It was a joke.  Geddit?

Now political correctness is one of the most important factors in any one's life, especially someone in public life - take Rob Ford (idiot) and Anthony Wiener (reasonably able, fairly idealistic Congressman) as recent examples.

Tragically, as has been pointed out, our public life is now often in a place where people are more likely to be turned off by what someone says, (call General Petraeus "General Betray Us") than by what they do (murder hundreds of people, kidnap and torture, set back international relations by decades, and undermine democracy at home and abroad). Take your pick of examples.

(*I know, it would be politically correct to say "his or her"....)

Last night, Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" ran a brilliant skit on the media's shallow-minded adherence to these shibboleths (ain't that a great word?).  Here it is, y'all - "Racist Or Not Racist?" (Click to watch)

Bank Regulation, the True Story

More for Elizabeth Warren devotees:  CNBC stooges try to correct her on Glass-Steagall -

(Cenk Uygur, host of "The Young Turks", knows his stuff, but a sophisticated readership - like wot this Blog has - may not need his explanations of every point made. You can move through the Video by dragging the slider at the bottom.)

Interesting Links For You - Updated 11/15/13

NEW on 11/15/13: "The Insurance Company Bill of Rights" - Republican pro-business skulduggery - again.  Read here.

....................................................................
11/13/13:  Women's Rights Activists finally go "On Offense". The seeming collapse of public support for the Tea Party after the shutdown debacle, seems to have given liberals some semblance of backbone. They may finally be realizing that if all you ever do is resist the advances of the Right, you are still retreating.

Alan Grayson is one who has always understood this, I think. Now Barbara Boxer and others are getting with it, introducing the Women's Health Protection Act—"historic legislation that aims to end the relentless attacks on women's essential reproductive health by extremist politicians".

Sign on here - they want your support.

....................................................................
11/12/13:  Very interesting article on TomGram, on the disastrous difference for the
Spy-ers, between Omniscient and Omnipotent - the Spy-ees can get them back!

"There’s never been anything quite like it. The slow-tease pulling back of the National Security Agency curtain to reveal the skeletal surveillance structure embedded in our planet (what cheekbones!) has been an epochal event. It’s minimally the political spectacle of 2013, and maybe 2014, too. It’s made a mockery of the 24/7 news cycle and the urge of the media to leave the last big deal for the next big deal as quickly as possible.
It’s visibly changed attitudes around the world toward the U.S. -- strikingly for the worse, even if this hasn’t fully sunk in here yet. Domestically, the inability to put the issue to sleep or tuck it away somewhere or even outlast it has left the Obama administration, Congress, and the intelligence community increasingly at one another’s throats. And somewhere in a system made for leaks, there are young techies inside a surveillance machine so viscerally appalling, so like the worst sci-fi scenarios they read while growing up, that -- no matter the penalties -- one of them, two of them, many of them are likely to become the next Edward Snowden(s)."

...............................................................................
11/9/13:  Fatally shot for being a young black woman - 

Last Saturday, Renisha McBride got stranded after a car accident in a suburban neighborhood in Detroit. Her cellphone battery was dead, so she went to the nearest house and knocked on the door, planning to ask for help. Instead, unprovoked, the owner of the house fatally shot her in the head.¹

It seems like nothing could more blatantly lead to an arrest. But here's the thing: Michigan is one of the 30 states that has a "Stand Your Ground" Law.² Like in the case of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin in Florida, gun-owners in Michigan are allowed to "shoot first" if they feel someone poses a threat.

In this case, Renisha's killer is claiming he shot her in the face by accident, because he thought she could be a burglar. He has not been arrested.

You can read more, and sign a Petition for justice, here.

..............................................................................
11/6/13:  Does Lindsey Graham know better than your Doctor?

Danielle and Robb Deaver were "over the moon" about Danielle's pregnancy until her water broke at 22 weeks. They were heartbroken to learn their baby would not develop further or survive, but that heartbreak was compounded when doctors told them they couldn't end their nightmare and induce labor because their state bans abortion after 20 weeks. Doctors had to wait for Danielle to get sick or for the baby to die before they could do anything. When baby Elizabeth was finally born, she survived for only 15 minutes.¹

Senator Lindsey Graham is planning to introduce a national bill this week that criminalizes abortions after 20 weeks.² When politicians introduce these inhumane bans on abortions, they are tying the hands of doctors who want to help couples like the Deavers. Less than 2% of abortions occur after 20 weeks, and many of them are for heartbreaking reasons that no one should ever have to face.³

Texas, North Dakota, and Arkansas have all passed 20-week abortion bans this year, and so has the House in Congress.⁴ If we don't make a stand against Sen. Graham's bill in the Senate, more states will be emboldened to pass these inhumane laws. We have to make sure that conservatives everywhere know we won't stand for this.

Tell the Senate: You have no right to legislate our medical decisions. Enough with the attacks on women. Block Graham’s inhumane and extreme abortion ban bill.

Add your name to the petition.

=========================================
Hi all -

I'm turning over a new leaf - believe that if you can!

I've realized I'm spending too much time and space on this 'ere Blog, on relaying interesting contemporary stuff about issues. (Even though I absolutely love it!) So from now on, I'm going to restrict myself to things that relate to my main theme of "The War On The 60s".

However, since there are so many good things to read, which I love to share with you... I'm going to post just brief links to stuff I want to alert you to, and update it as we go along Life's Merry Way.

For instance, this seems pretty timely - Numero Uno:

How "ObamaCare Cancelled Your Plan" is really an Insurance Co Scam to Rip You Off

Numero Dos:  Former House Speaker Denied a Texas Voter ID

Numero Tres:  you remember how the Romans figured out that the way to keep the ignorant masses quiet was to give them "bread and circuses"? Well, of course the modern equivalent is the quasi-religion of mind-numbing team sports. Read how the NFL rips off Taxpayers here.

What's Wrong With US, 1: Judges and the Filibuster

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Let's Hear it from people's champion Senator Elizabeth Warren - watch the Video here, then read the Daily Kos post here, and sign the Petition at the bottom.  This is a biggie!

Time to force Harry Reid to get his ass in gear.

Spineless politicians (like the Dimmocratic leadership in their normal mode) will say, "If we reform the filibuster for the Republicans, they will use it against us when they have a majority."  I say, fight them now, and beat them, then fight them again later if you have to.  It might even earn you some respect. Duh!

Good article on Politico, if you want more....

Hear Alan Thornhill Free This Friday!

It doesn't seem to be on their website, but Ojai's grooviest Gallery, OVA for Ojai Valley Artists, is having an extra-special "Third Friday" event this week.

They'll be featuring one of the Valley's favorite musicians, guitarist-singer Alan Thornhill.  Free concert-ette, free booze and snacks, good company and Art to peruse - what could be better?

"Third Friday” at OVA arts, 108 N. Signal Street, from 6-8:30 p.m, November 15th. 

Here's Alan singing "The Last Time I Saw Her Face -

Alan's own website is a musical delight; check it out here:  http://alanthornhill.com/music/

Holy Stoners

A holy man of the Temple of Pashupatinath, Kathmandu

Those who are looking for an Intro to the 60s, might like to take a look at my earlier Post,
1967 - A Snapshot.

In that Post I mentioned that "In the 60s, the vast new consumerism produced some good stuff, including the Weekly Color Magazine.  All the major newspapers had them, and they actually included some fine journalism - as well as fascinating portraits of the times.

"... one example - "The Daily Telegraph" - had sent a reporter and photographer out on the Hippie Trail to Kathmandu, or at least India. (Yes, Virginia, in those days people could travel on a shoestring, with a pretty good chance of being attacked by nothing worse than gippy tummy.)

"They had dozens of photographs of individual travellers, with amazing tales of how they travelled, smoked dope, lived rough, communicated with the locals - in a word, lived!"

The reason why the Hippies travelled East, to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan (at that time a peaceful agrarian society whose Muslim tradition of hospitality meant that Western travellers were welcomed and invited into people's homes) and India (apart from fun and frolics), was to look for something more meaningful in life than "a steady job with a pension".

In India in particular, with Hinduism, more than twice as old as Christianity, and Tibet, with Buddhism, they often found what they sought - and lots of thoughtful people are still finding it.

Along the way they found many ancient and exotic traditions - 

Saddhus, holy men who take a vow of poverty...

... and commune deeply with the natural world

As I report in my Book Proposal, "The War On The 60s", somewhere in the mid-60s, "one of my teenage-philosopher friends crossed paths with an old soldier who had served in Egypt before World War 2. `You young lads, you think you’re on to something new,' he chortled. He had discovered the joys of hashish while serving in the British Army on scorching desert patrols and backstreet shakedowns, and had received regular supplies through the mail ever since. His Majesty never had a more devoted servant."

Images I Like, Updated 11/9/13

John Boehner's face is such a gift...

... to his opponents!

And we thought senior politicians were chosen for their smooth, reassuring looks?

The Only Way Republicans Can Stay In Congress...

... is by blanketing the airwaves with their paranoid, militarist, racist - quoting Winston Churchill's immortal phrase - "terminological inexactitudes".

To do that they need huge amounts of cash.  And they would dearly love to have all limits taken off their ability to receive these bribes - which is what they are.

Why are they bribes?  Because the rich - should we call them people; are they actual humans like the rest of us? - persons who pay these dues to "conservative" politicians, know full well that what they are buying is the right to have the laws passed that suit them - see my earlier posts about A.L.E.C., the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Now the Supreme Court is going to rule on a case called McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.  (I mentioned this case a month ago, in Goddammit, What Did I Just Say?, and pointed out that "Judging by the Supremes' unconscionable decision in Citizens United, we may have a problem, Houston.") The hearing on McCutcheon was this past Tuesday.

A group called SierraRise is calling on us to raise our voices against this travesty of a case that should never have been filed, let alone taken seriously by the Supreme Court.

They say, "This is pretty crazy: There's a Big Coal CEO demanding the right to donate as much as he wants in an election cycle."

The message continues, ending in a Petition for your signature - 

"The CEO's name is Shaun McCutcheon. His case would end campaign finance law as we know it -- and the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, is on board, eager for all that coal cash. ^[3] If they get their way, corporate polluters will be able to buy more politicians and elections than ever before, launching a brutal assault on all the environmental progress we've made together.

But there is good news: Several leaders in Congress are standing up and fighting back. These lawmakers are pushing for major reforms that would reduce the amount of dirty money in politics -- and with the Supreme Court considering the McCutcheon case, that work has never been more important.

Will you take 30 seconds right now to push back against billionaire polluters? Let campaign finance reform champions know that we're 100% behind fair elections!

McCutcheon's Supreme Court case, which the justices are considering right now, is just the beginning -- imagine a system where billionaires could just keep giving and giving. As the U.S. solicitor general told the Court, take away those limits and "Less than 500 people can fund the whole shooting match. The government will be run of, by, and for those 500 people." ^[4] These are the people trying to replace our democracy with their dollars, and our health and climate with their profit. We must stop them in their tracks.

McCutcheon is the CEO of Coalmont Electrical Development in Alabama. He filed his lawsuit with the Republican National Committee, and Senator McConnell jumped at the chance to join them. McConnell, who's up for re-election, is one of the biggest coal champions in the country, and he couldn't be more excited to take all that dirty money -- even sending his lawyers to join McCutcheon at the Supreme Court.

Environmental champion Senator Bernie Sanders took a different approach outside the Court that day, and told it like it is: "Freedom of speech, in my view, does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government." ^[5]

We can turn the tide. Our allies on this in Congress, known as the DARE task force, want to "disclose, amend, reform and elect." ^[6] They're fighting for several critical changes: overturn Citizens United, provide more public campaign financing by matching small donors, block efforts to stop Americans from voting, and require donor disclosure for political front groups like those run by Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers.

Tell the DARE task force to keep at it -- let's send them a petition with 60,000 names so they'll know we've got their backs!

In it together,

Nathan Empsall
SierraRise Senior Campaigner

P.S. Five signatures are even more powerful than one -- after you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends, family, and colleagues!
"

You probably never watch Network Television....

... for the very good reason that it's 99% garbage.

Believe it or not, I am at this moment writing a serious Post about McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.  But I got sidetracked, your Honor.

By this....

One of the things about Network TV is that they love to make fun of dumb people.

BUT they are themselves one of the strongest influences in the dumbing-down of America.  They have to do this, first, to be able to keep Americans satisfied with a diet of Pablum (meaning baby-food) and second, to keep them in a state of mind to buy whatever crap the networks' corporate masters want them to buy this month, and necessarily not pay attention to what's being done to them by the 1%.

Therefore, in order to titillate their audience by mocking dumb people, they are forced to find people who are even dumber than the viewers.

I'm about to show you a video. Sadly, you will first have to sit through a pack of lies from Chevron, about how much money they are "putting back" (their words) into the economy. No mention of where they got that money from in the first place. Then you will have to tolerate a set-up from a dead-eyed used-car salesman (Jimmy Kimmel), who is paid millions of dollars to do this shit.

THEN you get to watch the video. It is funny. But it only works because they picked on drunks, stoners, and people whose minds were... elsewhere, then insulted them before making fools of them.

Go for it -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/08/jimmy-kimmels-government-shutdown-demographic-study-video/?tid=up_next

Sign Against California Fracking

An LA Times Editorial in September said

"SB 4 is the state's first attempt to exert oversight over fracking, a controversial process that involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals to fracture rock and release the oil or gas locked within. Fracking has taken place in California for years, but it has been limited in scope, with most wells located in a remote area of Kern County. Now, with the revelation that the Monterey Shale in the Central Valley might contain 15 billion barrels of frackable oil, the practice is expected to boom.
"There are reasons to be concerned about possible effects on groundwater and air quality. Even more worrisome for California is the danger of setting off seismic activity; studies in other states where fracking is more established have linked earthquakes to the injection of wastewater into wells, even in areas that are not quake-prone.
"The Legislature should be embarrassed by its reckless attitude on this issue."

To read more, go here.

Today there's a Petition to sign, from CREDO, who say:

"On Monday, CREDO activists and our allies had a chance to directly confront Governor Brown and demand a ban on fracking at an event in San Francisco. And he may have signaled an opening for a reversal on his position in support of fracking and SB 4, the dangerous fracking bill he recently signed.¹

Ironically, Brown was in San Francisco to ink a climate agreement with Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. We know Governor Brown is committed to action on climate change, which he described on Monday as "the world's greatest existential challenge."²

But from his statements on Monday, it seems like Governor Brown, who greased the wheels for expanded fracking in California by pushing for and signing SB 4, may not realize some of the basic facts about how bad fracking is for the climate. If he stands by what he said on Monday, he should put a moratorium on fracking.

Tell Governor Brown: Impose a temporary moratorium on fracking while you fully investigate the science behind fracking for oil production. Click here to sign automatically."

[The above link will take you to the Petiton, and to a clear description of the situation in California.]

Propaganda

This made me laugh....

(although the "Gander" looks more like a duck)

and this is a bit weird....