"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Nuremberging Bush and Cheney
Then the US torturers stopped, and asked for guidance...fearing that they might have done something illegal... Gee, do you think? At Nuremberg after WWII, America and its literally allies hanged Germans who did these things. Secret US endorsement of severe interrogations
Heartless bastard lunatics
David Brooks tries to explain how and why Republicans aren't nearly the heartless bastard lunatics they appear to be (and fails miserably). I believe my local cable TV company has carried the network with Chris Matthews' TV show since the beginning (for years and years now). Though I've never specifically tuned in to see it, I couldn't help but spend some time with him on the tube just by happenstance sometimes, while I was eating or what-not. In all those times I saw him in action, he seemed just as much a shill for the Bush Administration, corporate welfare, senseless war, and Republicans in general as Fox's Bill O Reilly: I could see very little difference. So anything he says now just seems to indicate he's losing viewer ratings being pro-Bush, so he's now going the other way (on that single item).
Point of order
[Americans] do not know what it is like to have guns tanks and bombs going off... soldiers shooting anything that moves... next door neighbors blown to bits... their relatives and friends tortured or killed... houses and cities blown to smithereens...I am tempted to be a devil's advocate and say there are more murders and violence here than in other countries, especially just outside my door here in Oakland, but I'd rather correct the statement, "Except for the Civil War there has never been any bloodshed on American soil." I realize he is trying to comment that there is no war on US soil in recent memory, but this is an asinine statement especially since he said he watched a PBS special on war. Wars in the continental US: Indian wars, French and Indian War, revolutionary war, Spanish wars of conquest, Mexican-American war (also fought in New Mexico and California), Civil War, and the War of 1812 when the white house burned to the ground. I'll read college kid rants on other sites now, thanks.
Bumper thinkers
That's ok, I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway. and At least Nixon resigned.
No opportunity to mix and match
Assuming I am addressing he distaff half of Helen and Harry, You double X chromosome people are so smug. Just because we are genetic cripples doesn't mean that we can't crawl. There is a wonderful book called Adam's Curse that goes into the tragedy of the Y chromosome and why we males are destined to decay further and bring an end to the species, unless, of course women take up parthenogenesis. Turkeys do it. Lizards do it. Rotifers do it. Why not humans. Ladies, you must begin the work that will need to be done to be able to take up reproducing without the aid of the male. By the time the male line decays into oblivion you'all will have worked out the kinks and saved the species. Or at least your half. The good half! Say, do you think that all us guys could get those great blue parking plaques? Here I am stuck with a chromosome that has no identical twin to cross over with, unlike your two compatible Xes. No opportunity to mix and match and splice and paste to preserve the X indefinitely. How sad. And then the sun will burn out. We the genetically crippled salute you.
PS. Oh, read your email again... You meant the arm, not the X chromosome. Neither is painful, thankfully. In the immortal words of Rosana Rosana Dana, never mind. Pretend it's sad
oh but they pretend they do, and they pretend it's necessary, and they pretend it's sad, they are pretards. and if they are doing the shooting, EVERYONE they've shot becomes an instant 'terrorist' post mortem. if he looks funny, better to be safe than sorry. it's the pretard way. best to avoid letting them predict future events in your life.
Before the polls are closed
Another gift from the Bushies to the American people and the next Democratic Party's leaders of the free world. It'll be interesting to hear how the underdog Dem leadership 'splain what their masters want us rabble to know about Iran. I'm expecting better run publicity campaigns and more literate memos from the Clinton White House then the Bushies ever produced. Dems need to finesse the same old bullshit which the neocons simply pushed through bribes, blackmail and extortion. The Dems traditionally have more groups to waste time wrangling and always far less dollars to spend or withhold. The press will be talking about a new Dem/Republican foreign relations Congressional coalition before all the polls are closed Tuesday election night?
Wails of pain
by Mark Ames, The Exile [Moscow, Russia]
If I might add a footnote I would say sobfest.
After the devaluation...
One thing I really like in a sci-fi novel, besides a coherent plot and characters which are in some way admirable, is reality-predictive power. This novel has that in a way that is matched only by Bruce Sterling's "Distraction". Spinrad is, or was at last report, a New York resident, and his dense-packed prose has gritty reality like a skunk has stink. Here is a brief excerpt from the second chapter which introduces one of the main characters, Paco Monaco.
FLASH-FORWARD to 2007... The Con That Turned the World Against America
My comments: Foreign takeovers of US corporations are increasing thanks to the smaller dollar. But if a dollar marked down 15% makes a takeover cheap, why shouldn't Qatar wait until the Red Tag 50% Off Sale? At the same time, as capital investment in America by American corporations has stalled, their investment in plants and equipment -- productive capacity -- overseas has rocketed higher. We taxpayers have been told so many lies by the government, but one of the biggest is the fraud of "Supply Side Economics", in which tax rates are lowered to result in higher tax payments, or some such shit. Instead of using the tax savings, U.S. corporations have instead spent hundreds of billions of dollars to buy back their own shares, and to increase dividends. Likewise, instead of using dirt-cheap oil royalties and accelerated depreciation allowances to increase production of oil, or to fund alternative investments, the oil companies just distributed their windfall profits to their shareholders -- who themselves benefited from Bush's reduced taxes on share dividends. As the U.S. increasingly becomes foreign-owned, the profits from U.S. operations will flow back out to the foreign owners, for their share buybacks, dividends, and taxes paid to their governments. What will be left in America? A giant debt-workout, and 299 million Americans renting their own country from Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and European landlords and corporate bosses. Just as BushCo planned to asset-strip Iraq by "privatization" and the famous "Oil Law", so will the U.S. be asset stripped by its new owners. Remember the Clintons' NAFTA -- North American Free Trade Agreement? And how Ross Perot warned of the "giant sucking sound" of jobs leaving America? Well, it hosed over the Mexicans too, so much so that tens of millions of them swam the Rio Grande and took our gardening, housekeeping and other low-skill work. GM and Ford sent our auto jobs to Mexico. American corn drove Mexican farmers out of business, and now the price of Monsanto-ized corn is so high that the Mexican peasants can't afford their beloved tortillas! Meanwhile, Wal-Mart invaded Mexico and created "Wal-Mex", which uses thousands of unpaid Mexican children as unpaid baggers in their stores. George Bush continued the "free trade" scheme with new giveaways throughout the world, sending more of our jobs overseas -- along with the capital that would have come in handy just about now to create new American jobs. He also presided over the greatest financial scams in history -- Enron and the fake electricity shortage due, and the sub- prime mortgage bubble. At the same time that he destroyed confidence in America's money, government and economy, he built a system of secret gulags around the world where suspects are, to this day, tortured, sometimes to death. Between his Crusades against Islam, his roving Death Squads, his torture and illegal imprisonment without charges of thousands, America's popularity and faith in America itself have disappeared. The only thing propping up this gigantic faith-based system of government by gangsterism is the idea that a Clinton will be in office in 2009. Oh boy. Eight more years of Bill and Hillary. That will fix things! In the future, to just get by, most people will find it necessary to belong to one of the dominant economic posses. There are government posses, for example. Cops earn $75,000 minimum, and are exempt from most laws. There are corporate posses, with the top corporations holding more power than most governments. And there are union posses. The Teamsters just negotiated a $9 per hour raise over five years for UPS union members -- not bad. Or you can join one of the informal, feudal backwoods or underground posses. These are typified by loose associations of overlords and serfs, landlords and renters, etc. Each type of posse provides some security and stability in a nation run amok, though each has different costs and membership requirements. Becoming a Fed or a corporado means signing away all rights to privacy, dignity and self-respect -- total obedience is demanded in exchange for secure employment. Overlords and Godfathers demand respect. Unions demand solidarity. And so on. There is no free lunch. The only certainty is that being a Lone Ranger is hazardous (except for billionaire Lone Rangers, of course, because money buys *everything* in America, including security.) Personally, I prefer to have a Godfather -- the relationship is more honest.
Just unreliable opinion
Rising inflation expectations amidst an inflationary storm
That is an interesting article, with some nice pictures in case you don't favor wordy rants A few items of interest: 1) The ECB is very worried about the strong Euro, as they are taking the hit from the falling U.S. dollar, forcing the price of the Euro to high levels, which hurts their export businesses. The problem is that Asia, including Japan, China, Hong Kong, and others maintain tight restrictions on their currencies -- so that their currency falls with the US dollar, or doesn't rise. Eventually that will have to change and a new global accord will be implemented to revalue the dollar...probably that will happen after January 2009. 2) The price of a stay in a Medicare approved nursing home starts at $6,000 a month, not counting extra costs, like medical treatments, etc. Medicare pays for the first 100 days after that, you're on your own. It is two persons in each room, with very basic amenities and zero privacy. I don't know what the next rung down is for people who cannot afford this, which is pretty minimal... 3) Hillary and Co. are not going to reduce prices for anything. To the contrary, they'll raise taxes and inflation just so they can give you back a few crumbs off of their table later, maybe. It will all be a mess, IMO. The "Nanny State" will combine with Bush's "Security State" and then we'll be in a fine old mess. Imagine, Pelosi and Clinton and the rest of the old hags running Amerika. Oy! Better we should become Republicans, that way we can have our self respect THIS IS NOT TO BE TAKEN AS INVESTMENT ADVICE, JUST UNRELIABLE OPINION. CONSULT YOUR OWN ADVISORS AND TAX ACCOUNTANTS! 4) Liberty Dollars...instead, once the current prices settle down, perhaps think about opening a brokerage account (which requires a minimum of $2000) and buying shares of SLV. One share = approx. 10 ounces of silver. These are all legitimate choices for evacuating the USS Dollar as it sinks beneath the waves (long term trend...measured over long months and years, not days): LINK Remember: wait until the price falls, perhaps to a 20, 50, or 200 day average (depending), and think about dollar cost averaging over time, not buying all at once.
De-Googled
Viewing the world and life as a vast shade of gray
A little short for a stormtrooper
What next, a storm-trooper on every street corner?
The illusion of history as destiny
This struggle moves inexorably through interpersonal violence toward the stories of war, genocide and environmental destruction that we know as history. Without this division between a minority of delusional, fearful people, driven as they are to form ever larger and aggressive groups, and the rest of us, there would be little to fill the history books. There would be no reason to chronicle the grand plans of great men and institutions, no reason to record the catastrophes of war, famine, genocide and great plagues, no reason to write about great religions and ideologies, for these would not exist. The garden of Eden had no bullies. For those people with limited time I highly recommend Naomi Wolf's new small book (155 pages) The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. Naomi is our current day Thomas Paine. It is foolish for anyone who contemplates a future as a free person in the US not to read this. The genius of the approach is simplicity combined with brevity. She outlines ten steps common to any attempt to impose authoritarian control of any society. History not only repeats itself, it stutters.
Sorry, Mr Till
When you add that to the trillion wasted on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you've talkin' some big money.
The county apologized after the state refused to. I guess attitudes in Mississippi haven't changed much in 52 years.
Overwhelmed
I understand your frustrations... I think people are overwhelmed at times ...these is so much wrong at this time in our history ...where to start to fix it ..
Alabama dildos
No jokes about virgins? Makes me want to buy a purple dildo-shaped car and road trip through the state. ps/ my spell check doesn't allow [or rather know] 'dildo'. Perhaps it's in Ala. too?
Commercialism
ahh, isn't life so pure? the good ole powers that be need to keep you busy, need you to 'want' to buy the iPhone, they want to keep you afraid, keep you down, keep you in their monetary grasp, keep you taxed, and keep you wanting more, never satisfied. we are all just rats in a maze this is the way commercialism works, you will be the consumer, forever and always, along with millions of others, so the few, the rich, the one's in power, continue their Vampirism of all that is left of the human race, and war, that's just commercialism as well. and remember, not panic shopping.
Easily distracted
This is an ancient tool of government: keep the populace off balance with an endless series of "crises". War, sex scandal, and good old divide and conquer. Been working for thous...HEY LOOK! BRITNEY SPEARS JUST DID SOMETHING!
Serviced
What makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside is "thank you for your service" coming from you. The hollow platitude freely bandied about by hypocrites just pisses me off.
Some dang fine readin', says Helen
This page basically shows how lots of wildly different stories on my site relate to one another chronologically, as well as in other ways. Plus offers limited spoilers of sorts for some stories as yet unposted. The index also links to more in-depth reference links for some story elements, something like how J.R.R. Tolkien included massive reference appendices with his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although I can't say my stories have a huge following, my email indicates at least some of those who've read them become pretty big fans. There's apparently multiple father-son teams out there trying to build clones of my old supercar based on details from my site! Ha, ha. (Unfortunately it'll be hellaciously tough to get the parts for such an old car to do such things) Plus, young people both male and female are hot-linking my story images from their MySpace pages.
Empire?
As children, bullies: as adults, thugs: as politicians, Republican.
A dream in a dress
I believe in reincarnation. When I was a teenager I didn't know that the Romani [aka "Gypsy"] people were still around. I thought they were a historical curiosity that had been assimilated, or perhaps killed off by bigots. Then I had a dream that I was a Romani girl of 18, standing and clutching a fence in Bergen-Belsen. The details were incorrect, as in the dream I was wearing a clean dress that was far too immodest for a woman of the Rom. It was a regular Westernized dress; even today the women wear layers of long skirts and long sleeves, with their hair covered [I think]. I remember the terror and despair. I walked into a history class and asked if the 'Gypsies' had been in concentration camps and learned that they had. Since then I've been fascinated with people who can deny the suffering of the many groups of people who were the victims of mass-murder. Of course, there are no gay people in Iran, either. They killed the four they had.
We are not them
Two reasons really. Why do Americans refuse to get angry? 1) Most people prefer to act within the law. I readily note that the law is quite flawed at this time and is easily changed by those in power to further protect themselves and their own interests. To step outside the law brings the full force of both corrupt and legitimate government, local and international, down on the head of the extremist. And notice I don't use quotes for extremist. In such a case it's not just a euphemism. Power lies in the hands of the powerful only. Which is the opposite of the ideal for democracy, but that's another long winded argument for another time. 2) And then there's this little gem of a line of reasoning I hear all too often: "Because we're doing the right thing. So it doesn't happen here. So it doesn't follow us back. It's the lesser evil. It is necessary for us to survive. We're justified. We are not THEM!" You see, that's the mantra, which always centers on the idea that the person saying the mantra and by extension those fighting on behalf of the person saying the mantra are somehow morally superior to the people whose deaths are being shrugged off by said mantra. We are not THEM. Even if we do worse, we are not THEM. Now, I'm not a Muslim but there's a line in the Koran, (Forgive me if it's misspelled, there are many translations and they're spelled differently, same for the quotes) that I would find pertinent to a situations over the years. If those involved in such bloodshed had read and reflected on it and possessed a shred of conscience, it would cause them to slap themselves on the forehead. [2:11] When they are told, "Do not commit evil," they say, "But we are righteous." [2:12] In fact, they are evildoers, but they do not perceive. Yep. That's right. We're righteously doing exactly what we would call evil. Wait a second... D'oh! A lot of lines in the Koran can be taken hideously out of context and/or interpreted as a commandment to violence, especially the Suras containing information on the rules of engagement during wars, but this one I find crystal clear... assuming the Arabic to English translation is accurate. I know what some people are thinking right now, and this is exactly what was said to me when I not-so-tactfully expressed this realization about the rationale for the continued violence even by those who disagree with going into Iraq in the first place. "So you support the Terrorists then? You think what they're doing is right? You want to let them keep killing everyone?" No. Just... no. And neither do the people that are doing most of the dying, but they're stuck with the same dilemma with a lack of legal political recourse and repeat to themselves the same stupid mantra. "We are not THEM" Two men murder each other. Which one was the criminal? You only get to pick one. Vicious little circle isn't it?
The paperless society
If I recall Rivero over at what really happened says that the cure s to not just encrypt the info but the "key" and password should be stored separately Then again my first thought after "what dumb bunnie left that out to be taken" was "hope that isn't an inside job". Like being done over by the V.A. isn't enough you can now have them inadvertently help someone buy all sorts of goodies in your name. Remember when we were told computers would make our lives easier, or the "paperless" society... Hah, seems like the paperwork has tripled this last decade. Maybe the computer bit is just a plot by the paper manufacturers? Right up there with these cards will replace you needing to carry cash... yeah then why do when we use the ATM card do they always ask if you want cash back? The idea was not to have to carry the greenbacks, no? Or was I just not listening? Seriously has anyone ever gotten a paying job out of this internet bit that wasn't in some form of porn? Zen hugs,
They are angry
wtf?, I see Angry Americans all day long. They are Angry because the guy in front of them is only going the speed limit and they are late for work/home/soccer/football/baseball/drinking/molesting the neighbor kid. They are Angry because their favorite TV show has been preempted by another speech from that retarded chimp in washington. They are Angry because it costs them 75 bucks to fill the tank on their SUV. They are Angry because the teacher gave their kid a bad grade. They are Angry because they can't get everything exactly the way they want it, and they don't give a shit about what happens to some village somewhere in the rest of the world. Individually.. some Americans are the most caring and generous people you will ever meet. On the other hand these same people when facing a stranger wouldn't care if they lived or died, much less a foreigner. As a group, Americans are selfish, greedy, obnoxious and incredibly intolerant.
Cambodia and Rwanda
You know, nobody questions the killing fields of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) or Rawanda. Yet, the same evidence exists for these events as exists for the Holocaust.
A unified conspiracy theory
I've never been very good at keeping track of who's who on the dialogue page, but wasn't DanD the guy who argued for a unified conspiracy theory a few months back? Pretty sure it was him, and you called him on his sh*t, and he said he'd get back to you with a detailed proof of his conspiracology... but he never did. Same schmuck?
It's f**king true
Because most liberals are cowards and don't have spines. I hate to echo the conservative attack on our political ideology but it's fucking true. So many liberals want to sign petitions or have a drum circle jerk rather than laying in some weapon and ammo caches and getting ready for the inevitable Bush is now Emperor announcement.
I once was lost
I got a letter from Veterans Administration that said a laptop with my personal information had been stolen.
Mostly
I wonder what America would be like if we were mostly Buddhists instead of mostly Christians.
All is well, everything is perfect
The same reasons the Germans let the Nazi's run things. Same reason the Russians and the Poles and others let the Communists run things. Cause most of us are god-damned pussies who convinced themselves that our leaders are doing the right thing... because any thought that our leaders are doing the wrong thing hurts our little thinking processes, and then we might have to do something to stop them. So, it's easier to just go with the flow and say "all is well, everything is perfect"... Effort would be required on our parts. Oh, and please don't think this is something that is confined to just America. Same could be said about people in China, Burma, Russia, and even all our nice European Friends as well. It's all peoples of the world who are getting fucked every day by their own governments. We can see it in others, but ignore it in ourselves... because basically we're all pussies.
It'll explode
And if you think it's bad now, just wait until Bush starts bombing Iran. The whole place will explode.
God forbid you might actually want to do something about it
Why? Because they want you to keep consuming, keep going to work, and not think about the real goings on in the world. ... MORE ...
Almost suckered in
One magazine that I find myself continually reading, while enjoying my home brought tea and my Starbucks hot water at Barnes and Noble, is Harper's. I was even feeling affectionate towards Harper's recently because of the space it has provided people like Kozol and Hersh. So I bought a copy today with the intention of actually subscribing. Then as I examined my new treasure (nothing like the experience of looking at slick paper and dark print) from the comfort of the porcelain throne I came across this "Advertising Section" for the new war propaganda film. OK, I'm thinking. What doesn't have a little dirt on it these days. They have bills to pay, threats to deal with. Walk in their shoes stuff... And then I noticed that they hadn't even just put this thick wad of thin cardboard "Supplement" they had also made it deliberately hard to pull out! At that point I was irritated at both ends and I turn to the back cover. NO! Two back covers! Each a full page thick stock identical add for Morgan Stanley. Yes that Morgan Stanley. The Morgan Stanley of pirate fame. The destroyers of evidence of pre- 9/11 e-mail evidence just admitted in court.
It is as if in centuries past the pirates were advertising in the target countries that they robbed you and killed you less. Come to them. Excuse me for a minute while I bang my head on the wall...... There that feels better. I think I will be reading Harper's selectively, as usual, in the book store. I am thinking that you just provide a Chinese bakery with the little slips of paper. I tell you though, the thought of heavily armed police breaking open every fortune cookie they can find searching for "seditious" sentiments does bring a smile to my face. Some companies that will make specially-ordered fortune cookies, but I'd guess it's expensive: LINK LINK LINK
Broken arrow and empty quiver
Stop reading the books and walk the grounds of the holocaust camps. I have, and it happened. If you want to put your boots on the ground, here is a roadmap: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Bergen-Belsen, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Start your journey in Dachau: it was not engineered to be an extermination camp like the ones above, but it was the first "concentration camp" in Germany. It can be found in a town of the same name 16 miles NW of Munich. The sound of life outside the gates stop when you enter the main gate. It is the most eerie thing to experience, and yet many I have met who have been there recollect the same experience. You feel as though your are in a crowd of people but the interior space (and it is smaller than you imagine) is empty. It also still smells of stale death. Do you know what that smells like? What is most scary is the recent "Broken Arrow" (possibly Empty Quiver) events involving the bomber loaded with the 6 nuclear warheads. My gut tells me that this bomber was not meant to be discovered. The stories explaining what happened impress me as "spin". What gives me a cold shiver is the fact that this event happened just before the Israeli bombing of Syria. I think these events were supposed to be connected somehow. I wonder if the military/intelligence ops "outed" a Black ops event? I do not think an event of this sort has ever happened within the US Nuclear Command. Perhaps I digress into a new level of paranoia ...
You're right, it wasn't to go to Iran ....
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