Kelvin Mace
Kelvin Mace's JournalThe modern slave trade, TPP and the Obama Administration
Given this story in The Nation, I find it very hard to judge this action by the Obama Administration as anything other than totally evil. The obvious first defense of the president would be that this was done WITHOUT his complicity. If this is true, then I expect to shortly hear that he has rescinded this "reclassification" of Malaysia. If nothing is done, I am left with no alternative to the view that he is just as evil and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. That when it comes to a decision of money or humanity, he will pick money.
http://www.thenation.com/article/obama-wont-let-some-mass-graves-stop-tpp/
Obama Won’t Let Some Mass Graves Stop the TPP
The Nation
Malaysia is home to many “outsourcing companies” that are, in reality, professional slaving operations: foreign workers, often refugees fleeing desperate situations in nearby countries like Burma, are recruited to the country with the promise of legitimate work but then subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The State Department and international human rights groups have routinely concluded the Malaysian government does very little to inhibit the traffickers’ operation.
Senator Robert Menendez inserted language into the Senate version of fast-track prohibiting the use of fast-track for a trade deal with a Tier 3 country, presumably with an eye on Malaysia. The Obama administration and Republican leaders in the House tried to have the language removed but were unable to excise it due to the complicated path the fast-track bill took through Congress.
Observers were then unsure what would happen next. Would Malaysia be thrown out of the deal? Would the United States lean hard on the Malaysian government to crack down on human traffickers so it could sign the trade deal? Was there any chance fast track would be disengaged for the TPP?
Instead, the Obama administration appears to have chosen another path that has shocked the human-rights community: It will simply reclassify Malaysia. Reuters has reported that when the Trafficking in Persons report comes out next week, Malaysia will no longer be a Tier 3 country.
There is essentially zero evidence Malaysia has done anything to earn this reclassification. Just two months ago, police found 139 mass graves along the Malaysian border that contained migrant workers that had been trafficked or held for ransom.
Is "Denari Über Alles" now the Democratic Party motto?
"Slaves did not lose their dignity...because the government allowed them to be enslaved"
Let me be fair and give you the complete context of that statement in Clarence Thomas' dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges:
In dissent, Thomas argued that "human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away."
This was written by a sitting an African American Supreme Court Justice(?) in the second decade of the 21st century!!
How disconnected from reality can a human being be?
Of all the sins of the Democratic Party, this has been the most damaging. By refusing to filibuster this man, as they did Robert Bork (Correction, Bork was voted down in the senate. Thomas should have been voted down as well but 11 Democrats defected and voted to confirm), they sowed the seeds of the loss of the 2000 election, the elevation of corporations to personhood, the destruction of the Voting Rights Act, and numerous other erosions of justice and liberty.
Thomas is the personification of Judge Narragansett from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, to such and extant that Rand is probably writhing in her grave in orgasmic ecstasy.
Try to remember that this man replaced Thurgood Marshall
I need a web site developer to help redesign a site
Background: Years ago I was a niche publisher of web comics in dead tree editions, helping rising cartoonist (who had zero chance with the syndicates) make money plying their craft. Things went along pretty well for ten years, but the Great Recession did me in.
During that time, one funding idea for a particular strip was re-selling web services (web sites, domains, email accounts, servers, etc) branded with the the name of a similar company in the strip that acted as a background for the comic. The site was then promoted to readers as a way to support the strip and the proceeds split between myself and the artist.
The site is in SERIOUS need of updating, and the person who helped as set it up initially is no longer around. So, I would like to find someone to either:
1) Help us update the site and provide periodic changes on a fee for service basis
or
2) Help us update the site for a fee, then provide a set number of hours per month (I would guess 3-5) in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.
This isn't a high paying gig, but option two could be a steady stream of income that would improve with a better site.
Please contact me for particulars via PM.
People keep trotting out this argument
and it is moot.
It became moot when the Vichy Democrats REFUSED to filibuster Clarence Thomas and allowed him to have Thurgood Marshall's seat on the court. Thomas was as bad an ideologue as Bork, if not worse, and he was demonstrably, professionally unqualified for the position. Instead of filibustering and holding firm for a more qualified and less partisan nominee, the Dems quickly caved and pissed all over Marshall's legacy.
Without Thomas, Bush v. Gore would almost certainly have gone the other way and the last 15 years would have played out differently.
With the Citizens United ruling, it became game, set and match for the ruling oligarchs. The government, specifically elections, were now for sale to the highest bidder, and the highest bidder sure as Hell wasn't going to be us.
HRC will win in 2016, but it really won''t matter since the Koch's are buying the Congress. Even if she appoints a genuinely liberal justice to the court (as opposed to continuing the policy of appointing justices politically to the right of those they replace), that appointment will not be confirmed by the Koch senate.
Our one chance to roll all this back was that Obama would have lived up to his promises and been a real reform president. Instead he was just another center-right Democrat who sacrificed our liberty on the altar of of pragmatism to the god of bipartisanship. He reaffirmed the Bush police state, propped up its imperial war, and refused to punish Wall Street ghouls feasting on the poor and middle class.
People are now using the SCOTUS as a reason I, and others like me, MUST support a candidate who is well to Obama's right, who voted for Bush's illegal war, and is an absolute tool of Wall Street.
No, not happening.
Leaked Sony emails show MPAA’s opposition to fair use, confirms users are viewed as thieves
Source: ExtremeTech
Yesterday, Wikileaks announced that it had compiled a searchable archive of the emails that leaked from Sony last fall. That effort is already bearing fruit. The uncovered paper trail offers a window into the difference between what the MPAA says it believes, and what it espouses behind closed doors — and how the organization has launched an all-out offensive to re-write US trade law to favor its own pocketbook.
The tone of the MPAA’s public piece is unambiguous. The organization may disagree with others about whether certain uses of content are or are not fair use, but it clearly supports the concept. This makes the following email between Chris Dodd and Ambassador Froman (head of the United States Trade Representative) particularly interesting. The relevant paragraphs are reprinted below:
I am concerned about your suggestion that previous free trade agreements’ copyright provisions were unbalanced and that USTR has addressed this lack of balance by including “fair use” in the TPP…
As I know you are aware, the inclusion of “fair use” in free trade agreements is extremely controversial and divisive. The creative community has been, and remains, a strong and consistent supporter of free trade, but the potential export of fair use via these agreements raises serious concerns within the community I represent…
I am hopeful that I can report back to my members that that US trade policy has not changed, that USTR is committed to securing strong copyright provisions in the TPP. But, there is no question Wednesday’s speech is reverberating in the content community, and I would be remiss if I failed to raise these concerns to you personally….I realize you will be traveling, but this is a sense of urgency surrounding our concerns.
So, according to Chris Dodd, the head of the MPAA, the discussion of fair use at a session of the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty is “extremely controversial and divisive.”
Read more: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/203654-leaked-sony-emails-show-mpaas-opposition-to-fair-use-confirms-users-are-viewed-as-thieves
Chris Dodd is another Vichy Democrat happy to sell out the America public at the behest of his corporate masters. Again, this is a look into the secret deals being cut of how to use the TPP to gut "fair use" in current copyright law.
An open letter to America from a cranky groundhog
A letter from Punxsutawney, PA
Note: This posting was sent to me for publication by the groundhog referred to in the press as “Punxsutawney Phil”, who has asked me to post it here since he has no internet access (“Don’t believe any of the crap they feed you about my having a Facebook page. These pricks won’t even spring for 1200 baud dialup despite the millions they make off me.”)
Dear America:
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???!!!!
Here I am, in my den sleeping peacefully (it’s called “hibernation” LOOK IT UP!!!!), dreaming a really nice dream about hot groundhog sex with hot groundhogs (imagine a furry Sarah Palin, but to my relief its actually Tina Fey) and suddenly, some yutz, some colostomy bag, some chowder-head, some smegma-faced git with cold hands and a top hat, grabs my leg, yanks me out of my warm bed, then holds me up in front of a sea of camera wielding cretins with press credentials, so I can predict the freakin’ weather.
Me.
A groundhog.
Marmota Monax. A member of the order Rodentia.
Try as I might, whether I consult Wikipedia or Britannica, nowhere does it say I have a degree in meteorology, climatology, or even atmospheric thermodynamics. I don’t tell appallingly bad jokes, nor crack vile puns about “snowmen” and “snowballs”. Aside from a rather generous figure, I look nothing like Willard Scott (or whoever the fat guy is who does your local weather).
Let’s look at my Wikipedia entry, shall we? What are my credentials?
"Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using burrows for SLEEPING, rearing young, and HIBERNATING. The average groundhog has been estimated to move approximately 1 m3 (35 cu ft), or 320 kg (710 lb), of dirt when digging a burrow."
See? Not a bloody thing about being able to predict the weather. No doppler RADAR in my music room, no supercomputers in my natatorium, no maps of the U.S. with smiley suns and frowny clouds. (Yeah, I know, there’s a section about me and Groundhog’s Day, but bear in mind: 1) It is Wikipedia, so any yahoo can post anything he pleases. 2) It is mentioned in the same section as the stupid tongue-twister about “woodchucks chucking wood”. And the answer is, I have never chucked so much as a toothpick in my entire life).
So why, why for the sake of all that is sane and rational do you people expect me to predict your weather? I could understand yanking my keister out of bed to help you dig a foundation for your house, or run a new line to your septic tank, but WHY ask ME to predict the weather? Do you call in a plumber to cast your horoscope? And for Jeebus’ sake, it’s the 21st century, don’t you have anything more modern and scientific than waving a large rodent around as a means for predicting the weather? Just because you saw it in a Walt Disney nature movie doesn’t make it true (my friends the lemmings had a REAL problem with that jackass.)
How stupid are you people?
Wrong question, I know — Stupid enough to believe that I can predict the weather, obviously.
OK, let me ask you another question. Assume you are me. Assume you are sleeping peacefully and you suddenly find yourself with a severe case of whiplash and staring at a group allegedly representing the pinnacle of evolution of the family Hominidae. Now imagine you know what the weather will be for the next six weeks. Now, ask yourself a question: Do you intend to share this information with these genetic defects?
Hell no. And if you can bite one of them, so much the better.
Can I ask another question? Where the Hell is PETA while this is going on? And no, a bunch of anorexic hippies waving signs is not my idea of protecting me. I want a sniper in the bell tower, with a Soviet-era SVD and a Zeiss scope with side parallax adjustment, who can pick off a 350 pound chunk of adipose in a top hat at just over a mile. Anything less than this doesn’t do me a damn bit of good.
Oh, and by the way, has anyone ever told you that Candlemas (also February 2nd) is a High Holy Day to groundhogs? Where the Hell is the Pope? Where’s the ACLU? My religious freedom is being infringed by these wankers who make me late for Vespers every freakin’ year.
Look, I know some of you think that this is a really neat tradition, and better yet, it makes some folks a truckload of money — not that I have ever seen a single dime and yes Bill Murray I am looking at you (note to self: Fire agent). But look, could you start a new tradition? How about Mel Gibson Day? You run down to Mel Gibson’s mansion once a year and yank him out of bed at 8:00 AM. If he’s drunk and raving about “Jews” and “Sugar Tits”, that means he’s good for another three movies and will divorce his current wife. Better yet, you could gut him and read his entrails. That was all the rage for predicting the future back in the day. You folks have dozens of celebrities and politicians singularly worthy of this honor, which would allow you to let sleeping Sciuridae lie.
Is that too much to ask?
Yes?
OK, no more Mister Nice Hog. Next dickweed who wakes me up before April 15th (when I have to get up and file my taxes) will find me boring through their eye socket and finishing my nap in their very empty braincase. Capisce?
Oh — And my name is Carl, not Phil.
Some interesting context to the Christian Right's opposition to gays and abortion
In 1934, a special Gestapo (Secret State Police) division on homosexuals was set up. One of its first acts was to order the police "pink lists" from all over Germany. The police had been compiling these lists of suspected homosexual men since 1900. On September 1, 1935, a harsher, amended version of Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code, originally framed in 1871, went into effect, punishing a broad range of "lewd and lascivious" behavior between men. In 1936, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler created a Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion: Special Office (II S), a subdepartment of Executive Department II of the Gestapo. The linking of homosexuality and abortion reflected the Nazi regimes population policies to promote a higher birthrate of its "Aryan" population. On this subject Himmler spoke in Bad Tölz on February 18, 1937, before a group of high-ranking SS officers on the dangers both homosexuality and abortion posed to the German birthrate.
And a fact I was unaware of:
After the war, homosexual concentration camp prisoners were not acknowledged as victims of Nazi persecution, and reparations were refused. Under the Allied Military Government of Germany, some homosexuals were forced to serve out their terms of imprisonment, regardless of the time spent in concentration camps. The 1935 version of Paragraph 175 remained in effect in the Federal Republic (West Germany) until 1969, so that well after liberation, homosexuals continued to fear arrest and incarceration.
http://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/homosexuals-victims-of-the-nazi-era/persecution-of-homosexuals
The Supreme Court Allowed A Man To Be Executed, Then They Took His Case
Source: Think Progress
Just over a week ago, the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution to an Oklahoma inmate named Charles Warner over the dissent of the Court’s four more liberal members. According to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent, the drug cocktail that Oklahoma planned to use on Warner was too likely to result in the “needless infliction of severe pain” to be permissible under the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Sotomayor, however, only garnered four votes for her position, and she needed five to halt the execution.
Nevertheless, on Friday, just over a week after Warner received a fatal dose of the poisonous cocktail Sotomayor criticized in her opinion, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear Warner’s case after all.
Under normal circumstances, Warner’s death would moot his case. Subject only to narrow exceptions, the Supreme Court only has jurisdiction over cases where a decision in a particularly party’s favor is likely to redress an injury that party experienced. And the justices only have the power to destroy life. They do not have the power to resurrect the dead.
Warner, however, is one of four death row inmates who challenged the use of a potentially unreliable sedative that may allow inmates to experience considerable pain during their executions. The other three, at least as of this writing, are still alive.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/26/3615214/supreme-court-allows-oklahoma-execute-man-decide-take-case/
Just a note to the Pope: If ever some Catholics needed excommunication...
This is evil AND malicious.
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Gender: MaleHome country: USA
Member since: 2003 before July 6th
Number of posts: 17,469
