Wow, post is early and so am I. Good morning! Up to read linkys.

EDIT: good on you for participating in the St. Pete demonstration. Even if you got yelled out, you may have changed a few minds of people who didn’t say anything. Or at least, raised consciousness a bit.

Mornin’, pups

Chicago’s teachers went on strike this morning. Emanuel wants to replace public schools with charter schools. Already made the switch in some schools. Asshole.

Thanks, SD. Book Salon yesterday was worth a visit, the overthrow of democracy Palast and Rall are covering a must read.

Is that ‘Abortion foes’ a good name for womens’ rights enemies. Not my idea of what’s being contested.

Hey, Ruth. I thought it was a good Salon too. And, for folks who missed it, an especially interesting comment, from Greg:
Don’t give me that shit, mafr.
There’s a HUGE difference. If you read Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, you’ll find that Obama is backed by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citibank while Romney is backed by Ice Man Simmons, Paul The Vulture Singer and John The Snake Paulson. You need to know the difference because as I say at the end, “Every four years, we get to [choice] our nightmare.” Learn which ghoul is chewing which corpse. There really is a difference.

Just in case you can use facts if the issue ever comes up that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two main candidates.

Yes, and that Palast and Rall have been kicked out of MSM and kept alive at BBC and the Guardian fits in with the Diner particularly well.

Edit; and maybe you want to make it clear that ‘there’s not a dime’s worth of difference’ is a much disproved right wing talking point, needs refuting still.

Good morning and thanks for the post and host you old hippie.

Well done on the war protest. As the CBL says “80% of the people are unconscious 90% of the time.” It’s no wonder y’all got yelled at.

Ruth,
60 degrees when I left for work this morning. It just may be safe to return home!

Oh, forgot to add, Fuck. You. Rahm.

Oops, backing out the door, and coming back in,
Good Morning, SouthernDragon and thanks for this post.
(Are you feeties sore from Saturday or are you rested up? Protests take their toll.)

Thanks, am glad it’s come down from the 109F I saw in my hometown last week before the heat broke. Not easy leaving the green cool place I’m looking out on right now, knowing my trees will already be bare and the ground baking.

I wasn’t there. Bronchitis keeping me at home in the a/c to dry the air out. Wouldn’t last an hour out there in this humidity.

Good morning, pupses, and thank you, SD. Great looking links this morning. How will I ever get anything done with all this good reading?

Mornin all.

The St. Pete for Peace response sounds almost exactly like what the anti-war movement in the 1960s received from LBJ supporters.

The more things change…….

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Hope you’re feeling better soon(er).
We have had lots of humidity here, something very different for our high desert, but it’s not as bad as the muggy that you get there, I’ve heard.

Sorry to hear it, bronchitis is nasty and has to be treated or you get worse things. Hope you’ll breathe a lot of steam, always helped me when I got that stuff.

It annoys the hell out of me to hear that the OWS movement is withering away from people who should know better – like the Young Turks, for example. During a really brutal summer, things slowed down a bit, that’s all. Then there was the repression and the undercover police shenanigans, not to mention the near complete news blackout.

This movement has legs and it will survive and grow. The repression has just begin, Obama wants their votes, but he’ll do what he can, behind the scenes, to add to the repression. The movement will continue because, if you care about economic justice, climate change, and the entire host of issues that used to be promoted by the Democratic party, there is simply nothing else.

Good for Hollande. We could use a tax rate of 70% on annual income over $ one million, also. Wonder if France has loopholes to let the rich skinny out of everything, too?

I’m starting the accept that a large majority of people don’t want to spend money to educate anybodies kids but their own. And they think they spend too much doing that. One of the first comments on that story you linked suggested buying the 99c 2nd grade education package and a cheap computer rather than a Ph.D. at a chalkboard.

How in the world did Rahm come to the conclusion that spending less money is the way to fixing Chicago’s schools?

Boxturtle (Politicians should be REQUIRED to send their children to public schools)

Odd to hear there’s nothing else, when WWF and so many other orgs are out there keeping up pressure against the Big Oil forces that have kept trying to deny climate change is even real.

Hollande’s plan is fundamentally austerity.

We will not spend a euro more in 2013 than in 2012″,

Coming to a conclusion = dealing with reality in this case.

You can be sure that there will be at least one loophole for political supporters.

But I’ve seen two stories in French papers about the rich leaving the country rather than pay the tax. I suspect those stroies are planted. Or bought & paid for. But it does show that the 1% is nervious about Hollande.

Boxturtle (How about a 50% tax on advertising during presidential election years?)

Did you have an opportunity to read the polling data in this post?

good morn,slept rotten last nite,however i opine that,as long as we have unlimited $$$$$ for this:

http://www.suntimes.com/business/14528641-420/military-probes-failed-hypersonic-flight-of-boeing-designed-waverider.html

and skimp on education,the class war will just zoom out of the atmosphere like that supersonic drone

Have you compared them to polls on whether the country is headed in the right or wrong direction?

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 2,114

Afghan, Iraki, Yemni and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 2M

US MBS 2012: 31,372 and counting

No war but class war

Holocene

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

Never. Give. Up.

this one will cost more than,can you say a TRILLION dollars?

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/the-f-35-a-weapon-that-costs-more-than-australia/72454/

what could one do with an extra TRILL hanging around?

Loaded question, it depends on who the polled think represents the leaders, the media, the WH, the congress, or what, and generally follows a question or so about the economy, which throws in the financial community.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
guns or butter
what would Jesus do

Yes.

And, they support my position that Occupy had an excellent opportunity to grow from a brilliant political moment into a significant political movement. Unfortunately, it lost its way with a number of poor tactical decisions.

This is about the best Hollande could do under the circumstances. He cannot engage in an expansionary fiscal policy because of the monetary union–the cost of not being able to print your own money. We had a natural experiment with this in the early 90s when the NDP (social democratic) government in Ontario tried to counter the recession by following the standard Keynesian remedy. All it did was run up the deficit, with relatively little effect on jobs (a lot of the jobs were created in other provinces. Would have been different had the province had its own money. The currency would have depreciated, which would have given a boost to local manufacturing.

Rich leaving the country other than a handful living in the 17th and 16th arrondissements (most of them ex-pats or holders of two passports (usually the other one is Israeli), are the ones who are making the threat to leave. And the government is better prepared to counter them than the Mitterand government was in the early 80s, when people were literally crossing the border into Switzerland with luggage crammed with French francs. The stories were probably planted in Le Figaro, which is the right-wing establishment paper.

Love the 18th. Real diversity of race and class.

A political movement that both parties would try to coopt? We’re talking about anti-capitalists and anarchists here, not disaffected Ds or Rs.

And a nationally led brutal effort to put them down both physically and with propaganda.

I talked to an anti-union gay teacher yesterday. . . Billo is his hero. Lord, that was wild, but it made me realize that we have a lot of tough battles ahead. Solidarity w/Chicago. Wear red in support today.

This is what Charles Pierce had to say about the state of Occupy last week in Charlotte.

The one vehicle that might have brought income inequality inside the bubble — or, at least, might have attempted to bring it to the attention of people on their way into the bubble — was the Occupy movement. But, frankly, the performance of what is calling itself the Occupy movement here has been pathetic — a hundred or so people standing at barriers, yelling at the cops, and providing the networks with cheap-shot video that they can run forever. Back in the day, when the occupation of Zuccotti Park was really rolling, you could see the results of people willing at least to yell at the correct buildings. (They forced that appalling video of the young bankster types guzzling champagne on the balcony while the cops busted some heads. That is how you change the debate, or at least wedge yourself into a place in it.) Here, it’s a claque of people sleeping in a park and the issue on which the movement founded itself gets lost in regularly scheduled daily wanking.

Wearing my faded grey t shirt with the faded American Flag on it to the park for my walk. Does the red in the flag count?

So many people trying to put Occupy into an establishment pigeon hole so that it fits into their establishment mindset. A group of people calling itself Occupy Charlotte doesn’t make it part of Occupy.

OWS has actions planned in NYC next weekend and Monday. Let’s see what happens then.

Reading Southern Drqagon’s report from St. Pete’s for Peace, I’m thinking spending a lot of money, time, and effort to send a lot of people to Charlotte engage in protest directed at Democratic True Believers wouldn’t have been the most productive thing to do at the moment. St. Pete’s for Peace has the right idea, doing it locally (as other Occupy and non-Occupy groups are doing around their issues).

How helpful (not) of Pierce to think it was “good video” to have people getting attacked violently by the police, but there are other was to enter the debate. Building a mass movement is a process. Some items from today’s news:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/sheila-bair-visits-occupy-wall-street.html
Ricardo Delfina said after the session that the Occupy the SEC letter on the Volcker Rule had galvinized the SEC. Apparently staffers are often opposed to lobbyist arguments, but unless they have evidence that there is well reasoned opposition, they are at a disadvantage in pressing their case with senior regulators. So focusing more on the public comment process is a potential leverage point.

Occupy Chicago‏@OccupyChicago
For breakfast: #Solidarity! Join @CTULocal1 on the picket line, find one near you: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?vps=2&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204515143209826754807.0004c91456cef85765838 #FairContractNow
Occupy Chicago‏@OccupyChicago
Sure is. @Tangell0 is streaming RT @BigKrisCuster: @OccupyChicago any live streams in Chicago of the #CTU #Strike

Hot And Crusty Bakery Employees Go From Lockout To Victory In One Week

…Organizers say the success is largely attributable to the support of allies, ranging from much larger unions like SEIU 32BJ to student groups and Occupy Wall Street activists. They also the credit the support of people in the neighborhood, many of whom have been buying bagels from the workers for years.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/09/hot_and_crusty.php

hi sd

thanks for the post and host. good to see your comment #38 as fdl seems to have gone silent. outrage fatigue?

I’m so thrilled to vote for Obama knowing how that he’s claiming committing genocide in the US isn’t a crime (why he won’t extradite Lozada) /s

Carry it in your heart, sister!

I just spent 20 minutes perusing TBogg’s posts from the past week. I had to stop (outrage fatigue).

Good morning to everyone, and thanks as always for the post and host SD.

No new posts up for 3 hours now… What’s up FDL?

No matter. I woke up today in a world where my 49ers beat the Packers in Lambeau. The Universe seems… balanced.

thank you marym @ 39

very happy to see progress and a success that didn’t make the headlines. we all need to see that economic destruction of 30+ years won’t be reversed in 4-8 or 10 years. it’s a bottom up process.

Good morning, all. Another bad guy, luis posada carriles, is wanted in Venezuela for blowing up a Cuban airliner that flew out of Venezuela. Somehow our govt can’t seem to acknowledge the request for extradition. There are other terrorists residing here, but the ones mentioned give a taste of the dedication of our govt to the rule of law.

I heard Glen Ford of BAR debate o with Prof Michael Eric Dyson. Ford has been on target with his criticisms of o, and said that we have to keep the pressure on o to support the 99%. He ruined his position for me, however, by saying that he and his family were going to vote for o. That certainly is the prime way to keep the pressure on o.

Morning SD & Pupses:

Sorry I’m late to the party. Really good radio piece on the teabaggers. I wish I could get some teabaggers to actually, ya know, listen to it.

Hedges.

Scheer.

Tom Tomorrow.

Barbara! Did you remember that that is one of my favorite e e cummings poems, or is it an accident in a very busy place?
I’m planting flowers this morning, better than cursing the weeds.
Take good care.

Hi ya, Kris.
Did the Hippos win? Not having any grands yet myself, I hope you don’t mind if I virtually adopt your girls as grand somethings?

Good Morning, my co-patient grasshopper.
We’re dust in the wind and we are part of a blink of an eye existence.
Back to the yard. It’s (check time stamp) early and it’s already getting hot.

Charlotte’s team lost by a touchdown, Alexia’s team won 34-0. And you can borrow them anytime :)

Charter schools are merely the transitional phase in a move toward a fully privatized school system:

http://ncspe.org/

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/07/braun_goal_of_education_privit.html

http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-023.html

http://monthlyreview.org/2006/03/01/privatizing-education

http://www.thenation.com/interactive/164595/education-reform

Dancin’ Dave “interviews” Mincin’ Mitt.

Sums up Richard Wolfe’s take—lazy journalists like goldfish swimming in a bowl—pretty well.

Meet the Press just another infomercial for the 1%.

Well 1 for 2 ain’t bad.
It’s a kinda a good thing we don’t live in the same town, or else I’d have to be hip checking it with your mom. (I’m sure we could work it out.)
PS…at some point I’m going to have to get your address, ’cause you know holidays are coming. :0

Ruth (and demi @4), I’m a little confused by both comments. The first question I have is, inspite of Palast’s snappy answer, what is the real difference between the groups that are listed as the backers of each candidate? Have goldman, boa, etc. suddenly been converted to good guys while the hedge funders etc. are now the only bad guys? Do you really feel that o will better a better, more progressive president the second time around? We have huge amounts of evidence that he has no interest in helping the 99% so far. What would make him change if reelected? To me the only choice is third party, and, in my case, that’s Jill Stein. That is my start in upsetting the uniparty hold on our govt.

The phrase “not a dime’s worth of difference” applied to the two wings of the uniparty as a right wing talking point? I don’t understand that at all. The right wing would want to show as much difference as possible between the two “parties.” Anyway, in the political context, it was george corly wallace that used it in his 1968 presidential campaign. He really had no love for either major party.

email me :)

notorious2again AT gmail DOT com.

When they say “not a dime’s worth of difference” is a fallacy, what they mean is that the Obama Dems are a much more effective evil. As noted by the Black Agenda editor linked in the main entry, TRNN. Whether they are concerned that Romney couldn’t push through the agenda of the 1% because they Ds might actually function as an opposition party if Obama is out of the picture, doesn’t really matter. They are probably motivated by the normal partisan impulses that afflict Ds dressed up as something nobler like whether homosexuals have the equal right to be unemployed or executed without trial as any other citizen. Because, of course, it really matters when you’re going to drench yourself in blood, whether that blood came from organic, free range muslim children or not.
These are the moral equivalencies we must address and why supporting the Ds political and financial complex is so important.. It really does take “a trip down the rabbit hole” to attempt to comprehend the rational behind supporting pure evil. Someone should survey Ds to determine who they support, Stalin or Hitler so we can hear all the tangled arguments about how one is so much better than the other. At least that would have some entertainment value and endanger no current lives with the choices thus maid.

Sorry you’re confused.
Good luck with all of that.
Here. I’ll hand you my magic wand.

Got it. Thanks.
(Oh, boy.)

You are aware, aren’t you, that FDL in general is not here to talk about candidates, but issues, are you not?
And, I believe that the host of this thread not only agrees with that, but makes it a point to work every evening to bring us links about the issues that affect us, from a different point of view than our media. Yes?
So, it seems that you are one of the firedogs who want to turn every. single. thread. into a Jill Stein argument, I’m just not sure you are serving your purpose.
Choose your battles, in context. Know who your audience is and how best to affectively persuade them. That’s something I’m working on.

Yup. Takes tso to replace the dragon.
Getbetter qui k.Aw SD, so sorry to hear you ‘re sick. The bronchitis is hanging on with me too. Better, but the ciugh isloud. Tiredof it now.
Did you see we had 2 substitute Caturdays yestedday?

I apologize. I forgot to add that Romney can’t be trusted with the Kill List. This is the list of people, citizens and non-citizens, that have been authorized for execution by the executive branch. I say, Executive Branch, not the Obama Administration because, though they created it, it will be passed down as normal policy to who ever takes the reins from now on.
Who knows what kind of people Romney would put on the kill list? So far as we can tell, its been restricted to brown, black, and poor. Maybe he might step out of that pattern, who knows, but it sounds pretty scary. After all those Rs are just crazy.
If such a list were created and ahem, executed, in any other country it would be a war crime and mandate UN intervention. Luckily, Obama is the politically weak (so his supporters tell me) President of America so genocide is not just OK, its actually encouraged. By the Ds, when their guy is doing the killing, and by the R when the price of oil gets too high, on a Tuesday, Fullmoon, etc.

For some reason the Obamabots bring out my sarcastic side. I guess because I am starting to think they are actually far more damaging than their contemporaries and just as if not more evil.

Well, demi, again I’m confused by your answer. You are the one who brought up the candidates by referring to Palast’s snappy answer who was backing each candidate. This included the statement about the “dime’s worth of difference.” Ruth answered that by saying that it is a right wing talking point. I can’t see how that is true, especially since it was george wallace that coined the phrase in the political context. As far as my reference to Jill Stein, it was because SD is always asking for a positive statement about what to do rather than just complain. I am on his side with that so I often make no comment. In this case, I said that my positive answer was to vote third party and I mentioned her because I didn’t want anyone feel that I thought any third party was viable. I hope that puts my answer in context for you. :> OK?

You are really on a roll.

You’re confused. Got it.
You’re not alone, I might add. It’s confusing times.

I didn’t mean for that to sound dismissive, but I can see how it might sound that way.
Clearly we are talking past each other, so maybe another time we can talk to each other.

Man, sorry for that gibberish above. On the Kindle, but worse, in a hurry, and the on-screen keyboard was covering the comment block, preventing me from seeing what I was typing. Not sure why sentences posted out of the positions they were typed in.

Mahalo, SD, for all your efforts here at the Lake, and with the St. Pete for Peace…! *g*

CT! Mahalo and best wishes for Daniels’s coming years.
Your g-boy has more hair at one year than my blondies had at three years old. And, such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Boy…..
Wonderful!

Here’s the link to John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy.
Just to make it an easy present for everyone. :)
I remain, Demi.

And, since I thought about sharing this youtube with my friends from FDL,
I’ll do it now.
If I had words that could make a day for you.
Reeeeee!
And, especially for you, Southern Dragon. A man who loves all living things.

I’ve never seen Babe. Thsnks, demi…that was sweet.