Friday, October 7, 2016 — 58°C / 14°F & raining @ 11:30 pm in Ithaca —
New York Times’ Latest ‘scientific’ estimates of who has the best chance of winning this 2016 Presidential Election Circus —
— The New York Times is delving into who of the HillaRump Circus has the best chances to live in the White House [ If it’s still there when this election is History- ]
This is part of the NT page above the link. What’s represented here are estimates of how the voters in states and sometimes districts inside those states have changed their voting allegiance since 2004.
— If this is impossible to read on your screen or device go click on the link above and see it for yourself.
I thought I might toss some optimism into this mix, “No act of kindness is ever small.”
— & Here’s a message I do not want to send subliminally or otherwise: [ “Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” Now there’s a statement that could scare anyone out of voting this time. ] I really thought this would be a nice positive message about doing nice things for people and animals whether that might advance your career or get you elected or whatever —
— I think the above tweet reflects the tweeter’s personal preferences and is not intended to be a statement that reflects the mood of the nation at this time.
— The last time I heard an explanation of how ranked voting might work —> In this case with 5 choices, the first choice would get 5 points, second choice would get 4 points, third choice would get 3 points, fourth choice would get 2 points, and fifth choice would get 1 point. — I’d like to be a ‘fly on the wall’ catching all the comments and getting a good feel for the atmosphere at a super honest session with people manually checking though hard copy votes in a case like this. I’m thinking hard copy votes might be an attempt to make sure the president of Diebold Corp. hasn’t tried to hand another election to a close friend of his. There was some fairly strong evidence that the second coronation of G.W. Bush was rigged in that manner. ‘Technicians’ would appear at a critical polling station, check the machines for glitches, hand the parties responsible for the count a piece of paper with the results scrawled down and say, “oh, sorry, because we did find major problems with the inner workings of these machines, we had to get the results, here, and then we had to reset the machines back to zero – so this is the only record of this election that you have.” – And the ‘technicians’ walked away and vanished, never to be heard from or seen again.
This tweet really caught my attention, I had to look up where in the world Patagonia actually is.
— Wikipedia says, “Patagonia is the sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Chile and Argentina.” – Looks like most of it is in Argentina.
And this cool photograph – my guess is it was taken on a brilliantly foggy day – looks like an island floating in the sky.
— & I will leave you with this. Have a wonderful night and an even better tomorrow.
— One woman was killed by a Pit Bull in Montreal last year.
— So they passed a law making it illegal for any ‘new’ Pit Bulls to come into Montreal. And existing Pit Bulls can stay if their owners pay astronomical licensing fees, and keep their pets muzzled when outside the home, even on an enclosed balcony.
— How many people were attacked and/or killed by Human Beings in Montreal last year?
— Shouldn’t they ban Human Beings from Montreal? And levy insane fines on the ones who stay, so everybody gets the message and realizes the intent is to encourage you all to move somewhere else?
— Are Human Men the most violent creatures on this planet? Should Montreal ban all Men from entering and levy high fees on any men who stay there? Would that solve the problems? — And maybe we should just muzzle them all?
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016 — 85°F / 29°F — Too hot with too much bright sunlight in Ithaca, NY @ 1:45 pm —
Ireland Jailed 3 Banksters. Why haven’t we?
— If I took the time to get large screen shots of everything I thought was important in news feeds and twitter feeds today I’d never get to sleep.
U.S. Intelligence says WikiLeaks is not a political arm of Russian Intelligence.
— Those who believe – “It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught” want to vilify all good reporters. WikiLeaks is not your enemy. Dishonest, megalamaniacal, micro-managing – manipulative, power-crazy politicians ARE.
– Wish I’d said that – [ Wow ]— Defining yourself is an act of violence? Holy Cow! Why didn’t I think of that? Calling yourself a Republican is vilifying all Democrats? Calling yourself a Democrat is demonizing all Republicans? “Ego is the human soul desperately trying to believe that it is limited to a human body and one short lifetime” < Jim Wellington > – That’s how I got mixed up with all this blogging and stuff – I’d always been a writer, I thought it was an obsession – This guy muttered one phrase at a writers’ workshop and blew a thousand of my most worrisome misconceptions all to hell. – No, I’m a truth seeker, embracing any truth I can verify and wanting to share that with all the rest of us lost and exhausted pilgrims desperately hungry and thirsting for Truth, Mercy, Spirituality, Personal Evolution – This is not an obsession, it’s a calling. I want to share everything that makes me feel good about being alive with everybody else who’s starving for peace of mind.
– This might be politically motivated nonsense, but it’s too funny to pass up.
— If reformed Republicans really want believe in themselves again and sleep nights (or days if their biological clocks are half as mixed up as mine is) – They’d be better off seeking asylum in the Green Party. Remember a Y2K bumper sticker with an animal that was half Donkey and half Elephant – a two headed ‘push me pull you’? Calling them “Republicrats”? Why keep voting for the same old [stinky stuff]? Haven’t we had enough of this nonsense? My wonderful, adorable daughter says, “Jeeze – it looks like everybody’s trying to drive back all human progress to the madness that started the first world war-” And she’s too young to remember the first Desert Storm idiocy.
“When she became a butterfly all the caterpillars shunned her-” ?
— Caterpillars can’t understand butterflies. Morons with their heads stuck up their Ice-Holes can’t understand anyone who isn’t as stupid and destructive and greedy as they are. Donald J Trump does not have a prayer of being able to understand anybody who believes in Bernie Sanders [ at least, not in this life ]. People who believe they have a right to destroy everybody else’s quality of living in pursuit of a little profit will never understand conservationists. Frackers will never understand anyone who wants to be able to drink pure, unpoisoned water. Oil Company executives will never want to understand why anybody would ever want to share renewable energy that costs almost nothing and provides better energy, more and better jobs, healthier people and a lot less stress than gasoline, gas and oil – { at least, not until it’s too late and they realize they’ve shot themselves in their own crotches }.
On a less serious note –
— I thought it might be a good time to post a photo of a beautiful world that is not yet spoiled and poisoned by the [ snar ] coming to California from the Fukushima disaster. People who are not muzzled by lying unethical political motivation are warning that Fukushima’s radiation has already poisoned too much of the Pacific Ocean, we might already be beyond any hope of undoing the effects of some of the deadliest poison known to humans – { unless those rumoured aliens/angels come to our aid with their radiation eating technologies. Pray for help, guys – }
This is a tribute to Jim and Cathi’s cat, Domino.
— Rest In Peace, Domino – you taught me that cats can be fun to play with.
Now that’s one serious looking guard dog. { he said, flawlessly elucidating the painfully obvious – }
— Like I said, there’s much too much important looking information flying around the Tweet-Us-Sphere to ignore today. Most of it is probably based in truth. But, like always, don’t take my word for it. Get out there and investigate! Use your brain before it doesn’t even help your cranium in its function as hat rack.
Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 — 66°F / 19°C & ‘Clear’ @ 9:52 am in Ithaca, New York —
— Below, please find information that has been copied verbatim from http://cafr1.com : [ There is a link below that should work, if you’re interested — ]
“If only Al Capone had been an attorney, he may have written new laws and made it to President”
The above was copied and pasted from Walter Burien’s CAFR1.com web site
— Just below the above graphic and the quote above it is a quote from Saint Augustine:
What St. Augustine had to say about what we now call government:
“A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralized that it acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it in the eyes of the world, not by the renunciation of aggression, but by the attainment of impunity”
Your Choices in the Political arena: Indeed, the plunder has become so common, and the plunderers so smug and self-confident, that their predations are taken for granted, and the thieves themselves treated with extraordinary deference! It is something akin to the Stockholm syndrome. You encounter the same mugger at the same spot every day, and eventually establish a sort of bizarre relationship with him—-even, eventually, thanking him for not taking more. When you are given the opportunity to replace him with another mugger, you vote for the incumbent—sticking with the devil you know, unless his opponent offers to share more of his loot with you.
— How could all levels of government get away with cooking their books to hide the truth from 99.9% of their citizens that those citizens are being ‘hoodwinked’ into a mafia style ‘Protection Racket’? That all “Transparent” revelations concerning the state of YOUR economy are made to look honest and ethical, but juggle all the facts so YOU don’t see that your governments [ Federal, State or Provincial, County, and Municipal ] hide more than two thirds of their income/wealth — only reveal/’report’ what they take in from taxes and fees – claim that the 1/3 of their wealth/income is all they receive – ? —And laugh all the way to their bank accounts without ever revealing the truth that they could stop extorting all tax money from YOU – [ Extortion? They are fleecing you under false pretenses. ] & with the money they have ferreted away, they could provide each and every one of you much better services, including free health care, free public transportation, free housing for anybody who needs it, free education as far as anyone wants to go in their life long studies – and make sure everybody has the food and shelter they need – and that nobody has to feel like the ‘gravy train’ left the station without them?
— Apparently – it’s very easy to get away with this [ nonsense ].
— Let me quote one of my least favourite human beings of all time :
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.” – Adolf Hitler.
= = = = =
— I’ve been following what I could understand of what Walter Burien of CAFR1 dot com has been saying for several years now. He doesn’t make it easy. His expertise is in money matters, he is an investment counselor. He doesn’t always communicate what he’s trying to say in the simplest form. It may be that he, like too many lawyers, understand things in a jargon that most of us can’t quite unravel to our own levels with ease and grace. – But in the last couple days, he has sent messages out to people who subscribe to his news letters that seem a lot more easy to understand than usual.
— Here is the full text of those messages. *** If anything looks like a link you may have to copy and paste the text into your browser to get anything like a link to work properly. ***
* * * * * = = = = = * * * * *
— On July 18th, Walter Burien of CAFR1 Sent this to his subscribers:
= = = = =
CAFR1 NATIONAL POST:
CAFR1 in reply to an article written by Ellen Brown, please share and re-post:
Infrastructure Sticker Shock: Financing Costs Exceed Construction
The revenue via investment capital mentioned in this article notes for just California “State Government”. Here is a real eye opener for you.
FOR EXAMPLE: if in California, say just for San Diego county and “all” local governments, who have their own CAFRs also, (Cities, Towns, Burroughs, School Districts, Enterprise Operations, Special Districts, Universities, Community Colleges, Pensions, Debt repayment accounts, proprietary, discretely presented, special funding accounts, etc., etc., etc.) “in San Diego County” the numerous investment and funded liability accounts “collectively” totaled as of 2007 about 1.8 trillion dollars. No typo, yes, 1.8 trillion dollars.
As of 2016, the totals would have grown probably quite a bit after the draw down of 2008 – 2009 and coming back on track as of 2010.
Now burst the brain and think collective totals for “all” local governments “in” the State of California.
To see or download a few example CAFRs from 2013 (about 4600 so a very long page) for some local governments in California and other states categorized by group entities, go to – http://CAFR1.com/listings/List…
Ellen Brown does a good job by connecting the CAFR to the wealth held by “a” local government, as she did by looking at just the State government entity wealth held.
Per the State Bank issue, I wish she would total as I did all local governments (all types) as a start for San Diego County including the county and make the same presentation but now reflecting the “collective” total within the county.
A special note is: Up until 1999 CAFRs showed the gross standing balances but then in 1999 – 2000 many from the general population now heard about, located, and started looking at their local government CAFRs for the 1st time so accounting changes immediately went into play starting in 2000 forward to no longer show gross standing balances and the changes made were to show the “NET” standing balances (You will see Net balances on all pages now).
Government would create “liabilities” to redact from the standing balances shown. Big difference Gross vs. Net, so keep that in mind when you look and pay special attention to the “Notes to the Financial Section” to spot the ways the standing balances were redacted.
As I said before: “That would be a real eye opener”
I note that when a local government says: “But you have to take our debt into consideration not just our investment wealth.”
Well, here is a second big eye opener. Going back to the 80’s, government had so much cash rolling in, they needed a “Parking Zone” for it. What was devised was to “promote” debt at the front door and then use covertly their own investment assets to fund that debt through the back door. Many different methods are utilized to do this.
EXAMPLE: A City may own many enterprise operations. Say the city in some fashion moves 50 million into the City Golf Course. The City then has a 50 million dollar bond offering and the city Golf Course “invests” the 50 million dollars with the City’s bond offering.
Well, the City now reflects that 50 million dollars as a debt, but is it really a debt? No, it is a book entry that is cross-matched with an investment on another set of books owned by the City, their Golf Course kept as a separate entity. At a stroke of a pen, if chosen to do so, one offsets the other.
There are over a hundred different ways to facilitate the same book-keeping trick including the investment capital coming from any country around the world. EXAMPLE: the City from one of it’s operations has 200 million dollars invested with an Asian investment house in China. The city puts up a 100 million dollar bond offering. A call is made to the investment manager in China with the instructions of; from the 200 million dollars held to invest 100 million dollars to cover 100% of the City’s 100 million dollar bond offering. The headlines in California then read: “China takes over another piece of California! 100% of the City’s bond offering came from China!
The public is none the wiser, and the beat of local government massive wealth accumulation goes on…
Again, there are many different ways to accomplish the same. The indication from what I have seen is that: If the dots were all connected through the smoke screen shell entities used on the transaction to trace the funding of government debt back to the actual investor, they directly or indirectly are one in the same.
Or, as percentages go, and all of the dots being connected, probably 70% + of that “debt” is in reality “self funded” and at a stroke of a pen (ice-cubes-chance-in-hell) if chosen to do so, one offsets the other. If confronted on the issue a thousand excuses would follow to perpetuate the way things stood. The bottom line in their thinking is: “We have taken it from you, we are the controllers, and we intend to keep it”.
All of us have heard of the collapse of ENRON. Well, ENRON promoted it’s wealth and hid it’s debt. Government does the * exact opposite *. Government promotes it’s debt and hides it’s profit.
The points disclosed above are rather Earth shaking to the peoples of this nation when comprehended. It flips on end the raw consciousness that we have been masterfully spoon fed to believe and take for granted. The reality of it all boils down to a quote made by a Brit back in the 1500’s and it is as follows:
TREASON: “Treason doth never prosper; what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” Sir John Harrington, 1561-1612
From the link for the example CAFRs, download the ones relevant to your locale, put on a DVD and share with many in your area. Make sure the ones you share it with, make copies AND share with all that they know also. The whole game for the last 80-years on government’s part to do what they have done is by simply maintaining “The silence is golden rule”.
In as much to maintain the silence is golden rule over the last 80-years, the key controllers from the syndicated media, organized education, the political parties, and entities that reached millions of people were included.
They knew all to well that cooperation was a must and the alternative not even a consideration due to the repercussions that would fall on them if they did not cooperate with the silence is golden rule. The one group that was definitely not included with disclosure by the PTB was the entire general population of the USA.
Again, download, burn DVDs, and share with many (especially with those that run their own businesses, teachers, and economic professionals)
Wishing all a better future, and a turning point for us all come 2017!
& On July 19th, Walter Burien of CAFR1 sent this message to his subscribers:
= = = = =
CAFR1 NATIONAL POST
The following Federal Court ruling opens Pandora’s Box per lower court authority / conflicts of interest to rule on or be involved in broad judicial court matters involving you.
In effect it helps protect “you” from being run through the mill by local “administrative” courts. Their “authority” to do so is brought into question if not nullified by the following Federal Court ruling.
The Battle for individual protection under the law from the abuses of local government “Administrative” courts begins.. Please share with those that would have an interest in these matters.
Well it has been a long time coming, but all along there have been discussions behind closed doors (never in public) that the Administrative Law Courts established with the New Deal were totally unfounded and unconstitutional. With the anniversary of Magna Carta and the right to a jury trial coming up on June 15 after 800 years, the era of Roosevelt’s big government is quietly unraveling.
A federal judge’s ruling against the Securities and Exchange Commission for using its own Administrative Law judges in an insider trading case is perhaps the beginning of the end of an alternative system of justice that took root in the New Deal. Constitutionally, the socialists tore everything about the idea of a Democracy apart. It was more than taxing one party to the cheers of another in denial of equal protection. It was about creating administrative agencies (1) delegating them to create rules with the force of law as if passed by Congress sanctioned by the people; (2) the creation of administrative courts that defeated the Tripartite government structure usurping all power into the hand of the executive branch, as if this were a dictatorship run by the great hoard of unelected officials.
Not discussed in the coverage of this story is that the Administrative Law Courts are a fiefdom, to put it mildly. They have long been corrupt and traditionally rule in favor of their agencies, making it very costly for anyone to even try to defend themselves. If someone were to attempt this feat, first they have to wear the costs of an Administration proceeding and appeal to an Article III court judge, then they must appeal to the Court of Appeals, and finally plea to the Supreme Court. The cost of such adventures is well into the millions, and good luck on actually getting justice.
Furthermore, Administrative Law Courts cannot sentence you to prison, but they can fine you into bankruptcy. So the lack of a criminal prosecution meant the judges did not have to be lawyers. They could be anyone’s brother-in-law looking for a job where he just rules in favor of the agency not to be bothered with law. Unless the victim has a pile of money, there is no real chance that he or she can afford to defend themselves. This is why the agencies cut deals with the big houses and prosecute the small upstarts who lack the funds to defend themselves.
In a 45-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta issued an injunction halting Administrative Law proceedings against Charles Hill, a businessman who the SEC accused of reaping an illegal $744,000 profit trading in Radian Systems stock. This is typical. The legal fees involved will exceed the amount of money he is alleged to have made, the typical result is to just pay the fine and they go away, it is cheaper.
The judge ruled that the SEC agency violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution by subjecting Hill to proceedings before an Administrative Law judge, who isn’t directly accountable to the president, officials in charge of the SEC, or the courts under Article III. The ruling is 81 years overdue. The entire structure of administrative agencies blackmailing people has been outrageous. Then you take the banks who just entered a plea of CRIMINALLY guilty to manipulating markets. They are now formally FELONS who engaged in violating SEC rules and thus under the SEC rules, they are no longer eligible for a banking license. The banks are “too big to jail” and the SEC has waived their own rules, of course, to exempt the banks. So they can engage in fraud and manipulation, get caught, pay billions in fines, and the SEC exempts them from losing their licenses. This is how corrupt the administrative agencies really are.
[ I think this is the cover to a pamphlet published & distributed by John Lilburne – This image was in this general location in Walter Burien’s message, but it wasn’t captioned or identified —djo— ]
This new decision calling the Administrative Law Courts what they really are is reminiscent of the notorious extrajudicial proceedings of the Star Chamber operated by King James I. The court of Chancery set up outside of the King’s Bench, so there were no trials by jury. It had the same purpose, to circumvent the law. This is where our Fifth Amendment privilege came into being. That came about following the trial of John Lilburne (1615-1657) for handing out a pamphlet the government did not like.
[ & This image was left justified at this point in the email message that I copied and pasted here – The images did not come with the copy and paste routine, so I imported the hard way 🙂 —djo— ]
The Miranda v Arizona 384 U.S. 436 (1966) decision of the Supreme Court came only after decades of abuse by American police against citizens, not unlike what we are watching today. The Miranda decision is hated by police, prosecutors, right-wing judges, politicians, and citizens. The decision is based upon the history of the right not to be coerced that began with the famous trial of John Lilburn before the English court of the Star Chamber in 1637 where he stood tall and objected to the King’s torture. Lilburn’s crime was handing out pamphlets against the king. John Lilburne (1615–1657) was a leader in the Leveller Movement of the 1640s and was a prolific pamphleteer who defended religious and individual liberty of the people. He was imprisoned many times for his views and was active in the army of the New Parliament rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In October 1649, he was arrested and tried for High Treason for printing and circulating books and pamphlets critical of the government but was acquitted of all charges by a jury of his peers.
Review “Actual” gross rates of return vs. “Net” rates of return. Payouts vs. Contributions.
Note that payouts are projected based on “Participants expected salary at time of retirement”. Actuarial projections are set on the projected cost basis “at time of retirement” and not what the participants salary is today. Projections are made 25-30 years out.
EXAMPLE: New participant’s salary today $45,000 and projected at retirement in 30-years $135,000 and thus on the projected cost basis the fund’s liability is substantially higher.
INTENT: The bigger the fund balance, the bigger the power base held under management.
CAFR1July 19, 2016 at 1:15 pmAlso, keep in mind the fund is “strictly participatory”. It is like buying a train ticket to ride from NYC to LA, CA. NYC (retirement) and LA, CA (when you die). With a train ticket, when you get to LA, CA would you try to walk off with the seat and the fire extinguisher on the wall? No you would not. You do not own one piece of the train, you just had a ticket to ride. As is the case in most large local government pension fund systems, the participants just have a “ticket to ride” under contract and do not own 1c of the fund’s balance. The local governments participating own 100% of their share in the funds balance.As was the case at the end of 2008 with the real-estate bubble burst and severe downturn in the economy that followed, California local government laid off 12,000 employees that now, poof, disappeared from the retirement system liability figures.1. How many billions in liability just evaporated with that layoff?2. Did local governments pull the now surplus equity from the pension system accounts they were participating in?3. When the economy improved 2010 to 2015 and local governments “re-hired” did they replace the money they pulled or did they just start a-new with the new-hires and new actuarial projections per the fund’s balance needs to be fully funded at cost projections for those new-hires at time of retirement?The above three questions are very relevant as to “how” this retirement system is operating.A review of the 2009 CalPERS CAFR may shine light on those 3 questions – https://www.calpers.ca.gov/docs/forms-publications/cafr-2009.pdf
CAFR1July 19, 2016 at 1:33 pmCalPERS 2010 CAFR – https://www.calpers.ca.gov/docs/forms-publications/cafr-2010.pdfCalPERS 2008 CAFR – https://www.calpers.ca.gov/docs/forms-publications/cafr-2008.pdf** For 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, note total participants vs. fund liability. Do the math as to what effected the fund’s ending balance.Was it market profit / loss, more / less participants, local government fund withdraws from the Retirement System?When a local government needs some cash, do they just lay off employees and make a withdraw from the substantial revenue which now is no longer a liability that local Government holds in a local government Retirement system account?
To update your information regarding getting email posts from Walter Burien – CAFR1, please use the following link:
— Okay, so I thought this stuff was important enough to fire up my home computer and copy and paste stuff I read last night during my lunch break [ on the laptop my daughter gave me when she upgraded to something she knew I couldn’t afford – ]. And This is as soon as I could dash this off and publish it to my WordPress dot com site and out into the blog-us-sphere and off into twitter ville and hopefully, effbook land –
— Happy Reading – If any of you come up with facts that I didn’t quite grasp when I read this, I’m sure you will let me know.
— Thanks — [It is now 11:05 am just outside of Ithaca. ] –,
Friday Morning, July 15th, 2016 — 66°F / 19°C & Clear with slightly more than half a moon shining over Ithaca at 1:30 AM. —
I thought I had convinced myself to get out of the ‘Bad News’ business.
The Globe and Mail might be a Right Wing Propaganda outlet – But there’s too much about this photo that feels way out of context – for me not to post this one first.
— As of last count – 80 peaceful people who went to see fireworks are dead in Nice, France – on the Coast near France’s border with Italy. Some man with a truck full of guns and grenades plowed through hundreds of French civilians out celebrating Bastille Day, their national holiday on a par with our Fourth of July or Canada’s Canada Day.
— Too many “Lone Wolf” crazies are blamed for atrocities like this. Eye-witnesses reported that Sirhan Sirhan was glassy-eyed and firing at nothing when he supposedly assassinated Robert F Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald was a C.I.A. Operative who followed orders when he defected to Russia, was welcomed back quietly to the USA after completing his mission over there, when a real defector would probably have been locked up and tried for treason or accused of being a spy for Russia. Ted Kazinski was the victim of MK Ultra type brainwashing, so was the guy who assassinated John Lennon. So was the guy who climbed the ‘Texas Tower’ and massacred the first victims of a so-called Lone Wolf Attack.
This bull shit has to end.
CNN reports the French are calling out for Blood Donors in response to last night’s terror attack in Nice.
— Television screens are playing and replaying an aerial view of the truck charging at people along a beach who were there to watch the fireworks. CNN gives us a slightly truncated map of France with Nice highlighted by a red bullseye dot.
“US reacts to Nice Attack”
— And Now I have a Bruce Cockburn song ringing in my memory = “The trouble with ‘Normal’ is it always gets worse.”
And – What may have been the most Positive tweet on the subject of the Nice, France attack is a message from Greece , “Pray for France”.
— Unfortunately, that’s not the only bad news battering us tonight.
“Authorities” in Calgary, Alberta reported that they believe they have found the body of a five year old girl who has been the subject of an Amber Alert since Tuesday. I ran this photo because the one that came with the blurb saying they think they found her body struck me as being the wrong photo to put up here.
— Was it last year or the year before that a boy about the same age as this girl was kidnapped and his grandparents murdered, and the boy was found dead shortly thereafter in the Canadian midwest?
— Argh!
Democracy Now reports that a newspaper has questioned the police over their claim that they felt their lives were threatened by demonstrators in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.I’m not sure where this photo was taken, but it seems to go along with the photo in the tweet above this one. There is too much history of police brutally defending the rich and powerful from imagined threats by the not-rich and the not-powerful.Hillary Might be the lesser of two evils. Somebody said that if a male candidate said exactly what she says, it would not cause a major controversy. If you remember Ronny Raygun as being made of teflon, Hillary is more like velcro.
— “Never have two such divisive candidates been running for the office of the President of the United States.” Almost nobody is neutral about either of the two obvious front-runners for their parties’ coronation at the conventions coming up this month.
— The most encouraging thing I heard lately about the upcoming US Federal Elections is that the Astrological aspects that are right now amplifying the all pervading atmosphere of fear in the USA will have abated and people will be looking for stability on election day, as opposed to the wide-spread paranoia and xenophobia that almost has too many of our countrymen and women believing that we need an immigrant proof wall around the USA if we ever want to sleep soundly without the fear of being murdered in our beds. Personally, I think GMOs are a bigger threat than Mexicans desperately looking a job that most ‘Americans’ wouldn’t take on a bet. I won’t even mention what one friend said about people waking up and realizing they’ve been sold into slavery if ‘Donald J Chump’ is elected.
And not everything is peaches and cream in Canada, either. Everybody I know, and like and care about up there breathed a heavy sigh of relief with the Conservative Party and especially Stephen Harper was/were voted out of office last autumn. But now it looks and sounds like a lot of shenanigans and ‘business as usual’ is threatening to sell out the citizens of Canada to the highest bidder.
— Too much fast talking – too much wool being pulled over too many citizen’s eyes – is a problem in Canada, too.
“Why civilian oversight of Police Departments Usually Fails”
— Remember the original teevee series “Get Smart”? I distinctly remember Don Adams as Agent 86 summarizing their adventures in one episode to Barbara Feldon with, “But we have to murder, rape, kidnap and assassinate-” To which Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 asks, “Why is that, Max?” To which he replies, “Because we’re the good guys!” And then he suddenly looks just a little bit confused.
& Now – to lighten up a bit. We’re talking about getting cows in our game world that look a little like this guy. I think this is a highland cow, maybe not –
— That was probably a young cow or bull in Iceland.
— Did I tell ya that temperature maps reported that the high temperature was 84°F on Alaska’s North Shore today?
And this gorge looks an awful lot like what Jim was trying to get a stream in his first attempt at building an area in our game to look like.
— Yeah, I’m grasping at straws to leave you with a bit of optimism tonight.
I remember some advice that I was given the first time I took my sanity into my own hands and nervously subjected myself and my writing to a creative writing workshop, “Don’t believe anybody else’s criticism of your work comes from the mouth of God. Take it all in, think about it. Live with it for a day or two and sincerely see if it applies to what you’ve just written. Change what you need to change, and defend what you don’t need to change.”
Sunday, July 10th, 2016 — 63°F / 17°C & cloudy in Ithaca @ 1 pm Eastern Time.
This is from a tweet concerned with flouride in the water. I’m more worried about fracking.
— Somebody needs to explain to me how anyone who wants to keep their drinking water clean, pure and uncontaminated is vilified & Those who are actively poisoning that water are not considered Terrorists. Frackers and Flouride advocates should be tried for crimes against humanity. & Crimes against the planet should be considered a step above crimes against humanity.
Friday, march 4th, 2016 — // 27˚F / -3˚C & cloudy in Ithaca, NY @ 5:30 pm
In several ways, this cartoon sums up the main stream media news I’ve been hearing lately.
After I got home from work this morning I tried to watch the news and after I gave up on that I conked out for several hours, woke up with a headache, took a couple aspirins and went back to bed, now alluva sudden it’s 5:30 pm and I could almost believe Donald Trump could be leading a charge of stampeding elephants and hell-beant bigots right at my door. Still have that headache, But with one eye open, I can tell there are no stampeding herds of elephants barelling down on me here. I should take another aspirin, or maybe guess I didn’t get enough caffeine and get some coffee and then chill? Where do I go to whine, “Make it go away-” ?
I don’t know why, but this photo is very appealing right now, maybe if I was -there- the warmth and the relaxed feel of being near that river, or lake, or whatever body of water it might be – would drive the headache away and let me lean back and enjoy life?
— anyway, I have to go ‘chill’ right about now – Have a good evening and a decent weekend —
Good Morning, it’s Thursday, I think – February 18th, 2016 — §§ 16°F / -9°C & snowing lightly in Ithaca @ 4:59 am §§ 21°F / -6°C & cloudy in NewBrunswick @ 5:59 am §§ & -13°F / -25°C & Very Dark in North Pole, Alaska @ 1:59 am there §§
This is an appearance plug-in available for FireFox browsers. — Wish I’d’ve known it was there during the last Canadian Federal election.
— Rachel was showing me some stuff on her Windows Computer. She sat me down and had me scroll through hundreds of ‘appearance add-ons’ for FireFox – You can have any photo of Tom Cruise covered by a photo of a kitten. & there are dozens of other weird things that can be substituted for mean, nasty & ugly stuff and/or people. That made my day.
— Yeah, so, sorry I haven’t been my usual rabid news hound self lately. I’ve been helping my daughter plan her wedding and thinking about happy stuff instead of the usual incredibly awful stuff we’ve been bombarded with lately in the name of the news.
& This looks like something Jim W. and I were talkin’ about – tryin to add inspiring landscapes to the on line game we’re still building.
— And this is me, having fun, using Rachel’s computer to update a blog I’ve been too busy to update lately. ( & I’m having the time of my life. 🙂 )
Monday, 01 February, 2016 -( 35˚F / +2˚C & ‘Partly Cloudy’ near Ithaca at 6:17 pm // 43˚F /+6˚C & clear in the dark in Atlantic Canada @ 7:17 pm // +1˚F / -17˚C & ‘Partly Cloudy in North Pole, Alaska @ 2:17 pm )-
Bernie Sanders being interviewed by Barbara Walters.
— I thought I’d be bombarded with nothing but Political messages when I checked into twitter. There does seem to be a lot of Bernie vs Hillary stuff going on. And a lot of ‘Everybody Bashing’ by Trump’s forces.
– Um, Most people I know would be in danger of ‘Rolling On The Floor Laughing’ over this one – A couple friends might need to reach for their medications – One guy said, ‘I knew it – The Martians are supposed to be Feline Humanoids!’ – and Jim W. in New Brunswick asked, “Is it a guy in a costume or something a taxidermist put together? ‘101 Things To Do With A Dead Cat Volume 2’? ” –
— How old do you have to be to remember when typing ‘rotfl’ would earn you a bunch of ‘lol’s in IM chat rooms? Think that real cool cat might be playing “Smoke on the Water?” or “Stairway to Heaven” ?
— I should add a poll here – ya think?
Somebody gave an orphaned Kangaroo a Teddy Bear? How cool is that? Maybe there really is hope for the Human Race after all.
— I scrolled past dozens of cute cat photos and cute dog photos and cute ‘what the heck is that?’ photos, thinkin’ maybe I shouldn’t send anybody into diabetic shock from posting terribly sweet nonsense here. But I couldn’t resist the two above photos-
– Think they might be waiting for a princess to walk by so they can try to con her into thinking she should kiss both of them to see if they turn into handsome princes? Rachel says, “With my luck, any frog I kissed would turn out to be Attila the Hun reincarnated-“
— I’m almost giddy thinking about the brain power I’m not wasting getting all upset about what could happen in Iowa this evening when the results come rolling in.
“Hey,” Says Rachel, and for once I’m not upset that she’s watching my computer screen over my shoulder, ” – I think I want to spend my honeymoon right there-“
— Okay, so something’s happening. The Earth is receiving a Blessing from Above – Or maybe I’m appreciating the heck out of my daughter’s visit to catch me up on what she’s planning for her wedding?
– And I can’t even claim that any political tweets are bringing me back down to ‘Reality’, not when somebody ‘photo-shopped’ ‘The Bern’ delivering the ten commandments and pointing an accusing finger at Congress.
— It’s been fun — Hang in there, I might have a lot to gripe about tomorrow –
Radio Free Earth News 