Just a Thought: A Stagnant Truth.

How far does loyalty and American Patriotism take you when a young, supposedly heterosexual soldier is ordered to rape (FUCK) anally abuse teenage boys?  Forget whether the acts were performed in front of family members, or not. It’s the very act that matters.

Just following orders! (?) Foul, evil, conniving, self-righteous.  Humans enjoy nothing more than the act of harming other humans

Does it take this sick behavior to finally stop you in your tracks to say, “this, my entire way of life, has been a vast red-white-blue lie.”?  Does it?  Even a little bit? No wonder more and more of our soldiers and hurting. There are secrets to keep, they bought into the lie, too.

Yes, by all means, let’s offer a free ride and safe passage to George Bush and Dick Cheney, but do everything possible to draw-and-quarter the likes of Edward Snowden for drawing attention to their crimes, and others.

All humans are truly pathetic, dangerous creatures. We’d rather harm others who suffered as we have, than to banish that suffering and those who ordered it in the first place.

I am sick.

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Just a Thought: Taliban

ORIGINAL CAPTIONED PHOTO REMOVED

The quote attributed to Reagan was in fact, true: "These Gentlemen are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers."   It's just wasn't made about the Taliban.

Sorry for the misinformation.  Thanks to Buckeyein Richmond for setting me straight. When I checked this out I didn't go deep enough and for that I am sorry. Close, but no cigar.

Here is the best explanation I could find to bring it all together. from Business Insider:

As the public debates some of the more controversial ways the US deals with foreign policy and safety, it's prudent to remember some of the less than fruitful foreign policy items where America invested its time and money. 

This photograph is from 1983, when Reagan and the CIA were dancing around the idea of arming Mujahadin fighters in order to fight back against Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. The result was a well-armed, well-trained group of jihadis who resisted (some say defeated) the onslaught of superior Soviet weaponry. 

Once the Soviets retreated, the U.S. lost interest and pulled the funding. Osama bin Laden took interest, and filled the vacuum, later fathering the Taliban. 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Often erroneously paired with this photo is a Reagan quote, "These gentlemen are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers." 

Reagan was in fact referring to Nicaraguan fighters and another initiative to arm them, this time against the U.S.'s own treaties. 

We all know how that worked out as well.

Whomever Ronnie was referring to were certainly not at all like the founding fathers of these United States.

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Just a Thought: Choose

Nope.  Think I'll pass.
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BP May Be Fined Up to $18 Billion for Spill in Gulf

Hot on the heels of the announced Halliburton settlement comes this, making me think that there is still more covered up.  From the New York Times:

NEW ORLEANS — In the four years since the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has spent more than $28 billion on damage claims and cleanup costs, pleaded guilty to criminal charges and emerged a shrunken giant.
But through it all, the company has maintained that it was not chiefly responsible for the accident, and that its contractors in the operation, Halliburton and Transocean, should shoulder as much, if not more, of the blame.
On Thursday, a federal judge here for the first time bluntly rejected those arguments, finding that BP was indeed the primary culprit and that only it had acted with “conscious disregard of known risks.” He added that BP’s “conduct was reckless.”
By finding that BP was, in legal parlance, grossly negligent in the disaster, and not merely negligent, United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier opened the possibility of $18 billion in new civil penalties for BP, nearly quadruple the maximum Clean Water Act penalty for simple negligence and far more than the $3.5 billion the company has set aside.

The rest of the piece is HERE.

And so it goes.
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Halliburton To Pay $1.1 Billion Settlement Over Gulf Oil Spill

Halliburton & BP?  Pay Up?  Watch out for snowballs in Hell.

From the AP:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Halliburton's agreement to pay more than $1 billion to settle numerous claims involving the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be a way for the company and victims of the spill to avoid years of costly litigation — if all the pieces fall into place.
A federal judge still has to approve the settlement. That same judge has rulings pending on the extent to which parties, including Halliburton, were negligent in the deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. Those rulings could affect plaintiffs' decisions on whether to participate in the settlement, which was announced Tuesday.
Pending action by the Supreme Court over interpretations of an earlier BP settlement with businesses also comes into play.
Joe Rice, of the law firm Motley Rice, which has been working for the plaintiffs, doesn't see those as major barriers to the settlement.
"They're not extremely complicated pieces," said Rice. "Whereas the litigation would be extremely complicated."
The settlement involves commercial or subsistence fishermen or hunters whose catches were affected by the spill, and businesses and property owners, including local government entities, who had property touched by the oil. They would be able to collect punitive damages from Halliburton through a fund to be administered by a court-appointed representative. The agreement also would settle claims for a separate class of businesses and individuals who were deemed to have causes of action against Halliburton under BP's 2012 settlement with businesses affected by the spill.

The rest is HERE.

Look for this to roll around the courts for a while, but don't look for any actual monies to change hands.  I truly doubt that will ever happen.  We're talking Dick Cheney's claws here.

And so it goes.

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Just a Thought: Children

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Just a Thought: Bullets

Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

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Just a Thought: Gaza

Does anyone know when they will begin construction on

the Gaza Wing of the Holocaust Museum in Washington?

h/t Fearguth

Lawsuit Against Bush Administration Moves Forward

Wow!  Just, WOW! I’ve heard rumors about this story for a while, but this is

the first I’ve seen it in print and that it appears to be of substance.  I can only say - “IF ONLY” this were to come to pass, at least some vindication for others around the globe who’ve been discussing these events and dates for years. The story:

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice, who is defending the six Bush Administration officials, responded to the lawsuit by requesting that the case be dismissed. The Bush tribe is claiming that the planning of the war occurred within the scope of their employment and therefore they have immunity.
Rather than dismissing the case, the Judge asked for additional information. So Mr. Comar filed a 2nd amended complaint back in June. The amended complaint provides more details about the planning of the Iraq war and when it started.
Comar essentially made two points to the court.
The first argument he made was something called judicial estoppel. It prevents a party from taking a position in a case which is contrary to a position they have taken in earlier legal proceedings. In this case, Comar used the Nuremburg Trials as an example.
The Nuremburg Trials, which the United States views as legitimate, held Nazi leaders accountable for their acts of aggression. Comar held that judicial estoppel dictates the Bush Administration and DOJ can’t argue that leaders aren’t accountable for acts of aggression because it runs contrary to the US’s position at Nuremburg.
The second point that was made referred to the Augusto Pinochet trial. In 1999, British Lawyers determined that Pinochet did not have immunity for certain acts he committed while in office such as torture and other violations of international law. These Brits held that Pinochet was not immune because Chile had signed the convention against torture.
Comar’s evidence, shows the Bush/Cheney team started planning the invasion of Iraq as far back as 1997. The amended complaint also explains that the war was motivated by personal enrichment and the war was a “crime of aggression.” and - In light of the treaties and charters that the United States has signed, Comar stated that the defence can’t now claim that acts of aggression are above a leader’s authority. In this case, the Bush Administration.

Read the rest HERE.

Could there finally be justice done in this case? Or, will whoever is president when the case is decided pardon the lot of them.

So far, this story has been successfully swept under the collective media’s rug. Let’s see what happens from here.

No pictures of the vermin until they're in Orange Jumpsuits, sitting in the dock at the Hague.

And so it goes.

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Dino Killer? We Are Doomed!

Christ on a cracker.  Literally thousands of dumb-asses on the Interwebs think this prop shot is REAL.  That in 2014, Steven Spielberg really and truly shot and killed a dinosaur that's been extinct for 66 Million Years!

It's deep in the land of stoopid for us all. One comment is embedded with the photo.  As usual, Click to embiggen.

More later.
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Pet Shop Boys Call For Mass Pardons

Pet Shop Boys To Call For Pardons For Thousands Of Men Convicted Of

Homosexual Acts

From the Independent:
BRITAIN: Pet Shop Boys are to use a new orchestral work about the computer pioneer Alan Turing to call for the “tens of thousands of men” imprisoned or fined for committing homosexual acts to be pardoned.
A Man From the Future, created by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, will premiere at the Proms on July 23 .
The Pardon, the last song, references the posthumous pardon granted to Turing, who was prosecuted for gross indecency and chemically castrated in 1952. Tennant and Lowe will urge the government to pardon others convicted before homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967.
“So very many lives were ruined over such a long period,” said Tennant. “Frankly it rather disappoints me that Stonewall [the gay rights group] has not done more. So we’re making the statement ourselves.”

The rest is behind a pay wall.

(Alan Turing, code-breaker and father of the computer, was finally pardoned posthumously last December, 2013.)

And so it goes.

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SCOTUS to BP: Pay Up.

BP took their most recent - and slimiest - shot at getting their initial agreement annulled.  Didn't work.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court says BP must continue paying claims from a fund established after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill while the company appeals terms of its settlement with some businesses.
The justices on Monday let stand without comment lower court refusals to halt payments while BP PLC appeals lower court rulings that businesses don't have to prove they were directly harmed by the spill to collect money.
The 5th Circuit and a district court have ruled that BP must stand by its agreement to pay such business claims without requiring strict proof that the spill caused losses.
The order indicates that the high court is unlikely to hear BP's appeal, said Loyola University law professor Blaine LeCesne, who is not involved in the case. BP contends that that the claims administrator is misinterpreting its agreement with many businesses.
"It's obviously a major victory for the plaintiffs, who can now proceed with processing these business economic loss claims," he said. "Given the several months interim before the Supreme Court rules on the appeal, likely many of these claims will have been processed and paid."
Steve Herman and Jim Roy, lead attorneys for businesses and individuals who have filed claims against BP, said in a one-sentence statement that the order "will allow businesses to continue to receive the compensation they're rightly entitled to according to the objective, transparent formulas agreed to by BP."

I wonder how much longer they can stall as they appeal this valid agreement into the ground. I'm surprised that BP's not used the "Panic Defense" thus far. The media has all but forgotten the people and family businesses most harmed - or destroyed - by the spill. Not to mention the still-very-tainted Gulf of Mexico. 

Still, it’s good that the Supremes threw BP out on their slimy ear.

And so it goes.

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Memorial Day 2014

The Reality:

The Truth

When will our young people stop fighting rich man's wars that only profit the rich?

And so it goes.

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Using Windows XP & Internet Explorer? Stop!!!

28, April, 2014.  The federal government today urged Americans to suspend usage of Internet Explorer. 

The U.S. and UK governments on Monday advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used to launch attacks. The Internet Explorer bug, disclosed over the weekend, is the first high-profile computer threat to emerge since Microsoft stopped providing security updates for Windows XP earlier this month. That means PCs running the 13-year-old operating system will remain unprotected, even after Microsoft releases updates to defend against it.The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory released on Monday that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer could lead to "the complete compromise" of an affected system.

Try Firefox or Chrome instead.  Both are free and both are faster than IE. Always have been. The bigger plus is that you will be safer than you would be otherwise.

More later.

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A Caturday Plot

A well laid plot, indeed.

More later.
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Damn! I Was There!

I had happily forgotten about this. After all, it was just one of many that continued after the Stonewall Riots.  Found this item over at Box Turtle Bulletin and realized, hey!  I was there. I was not quite 24 that winter, working long hours (noon to midnight) and fast becoming what we used to call a "nightcrawler" - and these illegal after hours places were where we thought we'd not be bothered. Someone didn't pay off the right people, I guess. What did we know?  

New York Police Raid the Snake Pit: 1970. It may come as a surprise to those who are not of a certain age, but raids on gay bars by the New York police department didn’t end with the Stonewall uprising in the summer of 1969. In fact, raids continued, virtually uninterrupted. At about 5:00 a.m. of March 8, 1970, New York police descended on the Snake Pit, an after-hours unlicensed bar in Greenwich Village. Deputy Inspector Seymore Pine showed up with a fleet of police wagons, and without bothering to sort out the owners from the clientele, arrested all 167 customers and took them to the station house, an act which violated police policy. One patron, Diego Vinales, panicked. An immigrant from Argentina who was in the country illegally, he feared what would happen to him in the police station and tried to escape by jumping out a second story window. He landed on a fence below, its 14-inch spikes piercing his leg and pelvis. He was not only critically wounded, but was also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. As paramedics attended to Vinales, a cop told a fireman, “You don’t have to hurry, he’s dead, and if he’s not, he’s not going to live long,” sparking a false rumor that Vinales had died.Following on that rumor, the Gay Activist Alliance immediately organized a protest for later that night. A pamphlet publicizing the protest read, “Any way you look at it, Diego Vinales was pushed. We are all being pushed. A march on the Sixth Precinct will take place tonight, March 8, at 9pm, gathering at Sheridan Square. Anyone who calls himself a human being, who has the guts to stand up to this horror, join us. A silent vigil will occur immediately following the demonstration.” Nearly 500 people showed up for the protest. After Rep. Edward Koch accused New York City Police Commissioner Howard Leary of green-lighting the resumption of raids and illegal illegal arrests on the gay community, Leary resigned and Pine was reassigned to Flatbush in Brooklyn. And the gay community, which had already witnessed a burst of organizing activity since the Stonewall uprising nine months earlier, became even more politically and socially active, setting the stage for a very successful Christopher Street commemoration later that Summer for the first anniversary of Stonewall.

Many legal (meaning they paid off) establishments were hurting because of the intimidation of the police. During a raid *everyone* was taken to the precinct, though not always arrested. After the raid, and when the bar was eventually allowed to reopen, there would be cop stationed at the door checking identification, and writing everything on a tablet. (there were no computers back then.) Scary stuff when being out at the time could mean the end of your career, and life as you would like it to be.

Another bit of forgotten history, remembered.

And so it goes.

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Reading, Reviews, and the Ridiculous.

I'm sure I mentioned a fascinating book I read last month: "Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin; Madness, Vengeance, and the Campaign of 1912 - by Gerard Helferich.  I read the Kindle edition.  This is not a review of the book, itself.

Reading it took longer than expected, what with all the medical mishugas, drugs, transfusions dogging my everyday activities, but I finally finished it.  It was great, but I felt that I had missed (or forgotten over time) some of the historical data, and subtle nuances of the story taken from the historic documents.

So, I read it again.  I always get more out of a second reading, anyway, but this one proved amazingly well researched and written. This reading went faster. Fortunately, I bought this book, so it's safe in the 'cloud' whenever I want to revisit it. I love saving books this way. Though I only save a few faves that I know I'll want to check in on from time to time.

I've since downloaded and tried reading a few other books, modern sci-fi mostly, but I've deleted them after a few chapters. Bad writing, awful plots, silly language, dull characters, rehashed story-lines from previous writers, you name it they had it.  Is this what it's like when you get old and have read all the good stuff?

Anyway, as I was hunting for new reading material I decided to check out a few reviews of the Roosevelt book. Most agreed with my assessment, even offering more reasons why I should read it once again. Then, I came upon a wonderful little review comparing the book cover and a poster of a so-called celebrity and I was blown away.  

I laughed so hard there were tears in my eyes. Someone actually made the comparison between Roosevelt's situation in 1912, his response, and commitment, to this whiny-ass hip-hop dude in 2013.  It reminded me of the comment I read by Kanye West that he "is tougher than any soldier." More than anything, he believes his own lyrics, but most of all, his own hype. 

Here are the images, side-by-side.  Priceless.

If you are only slightly interested in American History and America's Politics you will enjoy this book.

And so it goes.
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Philip Seymour Hoffman - Dead

Wake me when the tired, repetitive personal tributes, and exclamations of shock and surprise are over.

Me?  I can summon only two feelings - Frustration and ANGER!

Mr. Hoffman deserves neither.

More later.

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Remembering Harvey: 35 Years

Hard to believe it has been so many years.

And so it goes.
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JFK - Where Were You?

Those of us alive and aware of life in 1963 remember precisely where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news of the assassination. I know I do.

I had been lounging on the beach in Acapulco, Mexico with friends.  (Before Cancun or Puerta Vallarta there was Acapulco.) Enjoying a well earned, long awaited holiday planned months earlier. We were all involved in the media business in some way or other; NY dailies like the NY Journal American (defunct), CBS, and the East Village Other (defunct), Museum of Modern Art.

Anyway, we enjoyed sunning, scuba diving, drinking, dancing, and no ringing phones or deadlines to break the spell. Friday was our last day together.  A few had flights back Friday night, but most of us were booked on flights Saturday or Sunday;  Determined to squeeze whatever sun and sand we could out of those final hours. 

We had a favorite luncheon waiter who took very good care of us; joking about politics in general and NY politics in particular.  A well informed, no nonsense kind of guy. We met  for lunch as usual at the hotel's outdoor restaurant facing the beach on Friday before noon. The usual snappy patter, political bantering and laughter followed as he related current events from the NY papers. 

Suddenly, in the middle of our meal the waiter appeared white-faced, 
looking grim. He blurted out, "the president has been shot and the governor of Texas has been killed." At  first we thought this was the opening line of one of his lengthy jokes/tirades about US policies, but as he stood rigid, frozen in his tracks, staring at us it became clear that something was wrong.

Resort Hotels back then didn't always offer TV in individual rooms - it wasn't that important when one was on holiday - we made our way to the lobby (the only TV sat on a high table in the corner of the room) to join other visitors already there, hands cupped over mouths, eyes glued to the flickering black & white images.

Some with tears in their eyes had already heard the story was now reversed. Connolly was wounded and Kennedy was dead. Few available phone lines - and fewer open long distance circuits - made it difficult to get through to NYC, but one of our group finally did.  She returned to us confirming the worst. She was a copy editor at the Journal American and her boss told her the borders were closed (at this point we didn't know this), but to get to the office as soon as she got back to NY. 

No one moved or spoke for a while and then, almost as one, everyone attempted to reach airlines to change flights to get back as soon as possible. However, all flights into and out of the country were grounded until further notice.  Borders closed! What were we thinking? Nothing, really.  It was an automatic reflex.  "Borders Closed" hadn't sunk in yet.

Stranded, helpless (not that we could have done anything), powerless, angry, but mostly in deep pain. The following days are a blur. We were like zombies moving through the hours and days. By the time airlines rebooked us, we were essentially on auto-pilot drifting along on cigarettes and booze, and running on empty.

The short hop from Acapulco to Mexico City was quick and painless. Mexicana Airways personnel were sympathetic, offering kind words in broken English as we departed. 

The flight from Mexico City to NYC was hushed, reverent. Back then of course,  there were no diversions like music or inflight movies. No one ate much, but we sure drank plenty (in those days everything was free) and Eastern Airlines spared no expense in that department. The flight was otherwise uneventful, we landed on time.

Idlewild (now JFK) was eerily quiet and ghostly. There was an unending queue of shuttle buses waiting to take arriving passengers to the city, Long Island, even Connecticut. There were no Skycaps. I just wanted to get my luggage and get safely home.  Why?  I didn't know. But it was important.

A few days later a couple of friends and I met at Penn Station, took an empty train to DC for the funeral. It was sunny, windy, and cold in DC, but we had to be there to see for ourselves. Even then, it was hard to believe it was all painfully real; the president was dead.  

Back in NYC the numbness, confusion, and too many unanswered questions lingered for a very long time. Some would say they linger even 50 years on.

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