July 26, 2018

Gotta say it. Iran, and no "spokesperson" there, is threatening war with America.

Once again the American media is latching onto every bite-sized clipped quote, a few words is the maximum, translated from a Persian - known for its's flowery ways - and converting it into warmongering bite sized consumption by warmongerors everywhere.

War propaganda is still propaganda, and of the worst kind, and if anyone doubts America and American media is not fully capable of massive and coordinated war this someone has not been paying attention, or perhaps has forgetten about Iraq. War propaganda always relied heavily on amnesia and cartoonish pre-conditioned notions of "the enemy".

In example, the impoverished Houthis "bombed" an oil tanker??...with what, Houthi slingshots and rubber dinghies? And why would anyone do that?

All you need to know is, Remember The Dixie Chicks! Remember hard!

"Do not believe all you see and read" is actually good advice, as someone infamously recently repeated and bellowed out, if not taken to extremes.

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"For those who don’t recall the controversy: In March 2003, the Dixie Chicks — Natalie Maines, along with sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire — were one of the most successful acts in country music history. While on tour in London promoting their hit album “Home,” Maines started bantering with the audience at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It was the eve of the Iraq War.

“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all,” Maines said to the crowd. “We do not want
this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”


The Guardian published her comments, and when the quotes made their way back home to the United States, they caused a firestorm. Country radio stations were deluged with phone calls from fans to stop playing their music. Some protesters destroyed their CDs. Their tour sponsor dropped out. They got death threats.

The trio, who released one more Grammy-winning album (with the pointed song “Not Ready to Make Nice”) before going their separate ways, was effectively blacklisted by the country music industry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/07/17/after-the-trump-putin-news-conference-heres-why-people-are-talking-about-the-dixie-chicks/?utm_term=.dcbb16b8a4b2

July 10, 2018

Remember when the ACLU vetted all SCOTUS candidates and handed a list to Obama who choose a

nominee only from that private list...explaining how Obama's nomination was made in such a breathtakingly short time? Even the extreme right wing Federalist Society would dare not do such a thing and expect to get away with it!

Then, to compound things, Obama, and his majority-held Senate, followed up this transparent partisanship and abdication of their solemn vetting role to a partisan private group...by demanding a snap Senate vote (summer recess cancelled) to take place within 6 weeks of the nomination, barely 2 months from the seat even being open! Wow! A record shattering pace, bordering on panic for some reason, some say related to the looming criminal and election campaign investigations against Obama.

This all happened after Democrats shattered all Senate precedent by removing the 60 vote filibuster for nominees, eliminating forever the need for some modicum of consensus. And of course who can forget the Democrats refusing any vote on a sitting Republican President's nominee...for a whole year!

In those tense days of President Obama's tenure some said, quite reasonably, that no President under investigation for high crimes and even a possible illegal election victory should NOT be the decider on who gets a SCOTUS seat for life..not when the nominator may soon get 10 to life himself...not a good look for America. Nominator in prison. Nominee sitting pretty in a high court chair.

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Funny, I have no recall of any of that either.

But it IS happening now. Only the names are different. Not to protect the innocent, but to protect the guilty, which includes the corporate media.

Of course for that very same corporate media, excluding cable once in a while, the reporting will be very different. Obama would have been roasted...Trump may get a mild corporate sunburn. The man who just gave giant corporations, including the media giants, tens of billions in tax breaks....just not the same reporting for a rea$on.

Hypocrisy, you have met your match. If you dare look American corporate media or their Republican cohorts in their bleary eyes....YOU would blush first.

June 11, 2018

Don't have a cow, Trump! Wisconsin produces more milk than all of Canada! What difference

would it make to American milk prices and American dairy farms and jobs if Canadian milk "flooded" America...nada!

But if American milk entered Canada it would be a flood, farmers would be decimated. If aluminum is a national security issue, then so is milk and cheese. Canada must protect it's milk production for national security!

Also, the American milk production is already in massive oversupply, even with massive amounts of diafiltered milk not subject to tariffs being imported by Canada to make cheese.

"Major diafiltered milk production plants have been built in recent years along the Canada-U.S. border in states like New York and Wisconsin to service Canadian demand. Because of an ongoing oversupply of milk – and its ingredients – within the United States, the American dairy industry has been exporting the product in liquid form to Canadian processors. The Canadian Border Services Agency considers it to be a protein ingredient and therefore it is not subject to Canada’s high dairy tariffs."

In March, 2018 Canada moved to change this loophole. Enter angry wealthy major milk factory producers and you get mad Trump.

Not about farmers, it is about protecting millionaires.

Besides, will Americans get rid of their growth hormones banned in Canada?

Canadians have no problem with supply-side management and safer milk and fairly compensated family farms and will pay higher prices.

Producers are compensated fairly for their products and many dairy farms in Canada still are family farms (Producer)
Farmers’ margins and returns are predictable as dairy prices remain stable without fluctuation in the market (Producer)
Higher quality milk with less hormones and additives (Consumer)
Disadvantages:


Difficult for new entrants into the market (Producer)
Increased consumer prices due to supply quotas (Consumer)


Yes, the actual milk in Canada is different from the milk in the US, as Canada has stricter regulations on the use of hormones and additives.

"For example, rBST, a growth hormone for dairy cows to stimulate milk production, is not allowed in milk in Canada, but it has been used in the US. Also any cows that are administered antibiotics have their milk discarded until there is no longer than trace of antibiotics in the milk. All milk is tested for antibiotic residues and if there is any milk that tests positive for antibiotics, the product is not sold to the public and the farmer responsible for the contaminated milk is fined and has to cover all expenses of the discarded shipment. (In poultry and pork within Canada, antibiotics can be used, but there are no growth hormones administered. However, both are administered to Canadian beef cattle just as they are with US beef cattle.)

The US also does test for antibiotics, but the FDA allows for “safe levels”. Recently there has been controversy in that the tests for antibiotics are only testing for traditional antibiotics, like penicillin, but there are several new antibiotics that are not covered in the test that farmers are now administering to their cattle. Although Canada is ahead of the US in banning these hormones and antibiotics in milk, they are still behind Europe, where some EU countries like Denmark and Sweden ban all growth hormones and antibiotics from all human food."

Anyway, long article, but great explanation...in short, Trump lies.

Edit: links - https://americanadiangal.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/canadian-milk-expensive-but-more-safe/

https://ipolitics.ca/2017/04/22/dairy-101-the-canada-u-s-milk-spat-explained/

June 8, 2018

This is what we have become: Mass. Kindergarten Uses Lullabies For Active Shooter Lockdown!

http://time.com/5305617/massachusetts-school-lockdown-lullaby/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=time.com&utm_campaign=ideal-media-internal-recirculation&utm_term=68737&utm_content=2248702

(SOMERVILLE, Mass.) — A Massachusetts kindergarten class is drawing attention for using a lullaby to teach students about lockdown drills.

Taped to the classroom’s chalkboard is a rhyme set to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” rewritten telling students what to do if there’s a shooter.

It begins “Lockdown, lockdown, lock the door. Shut the lights off, say no more.”

Parent Georgy Cohen noticed the poster while visiting the Somerville school Wednesday. She took a photo and posted it on Twitter, writing, “This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be-kindergartener’s classroom.”

Her post had been shared more than 18,000 times by Thursday afternoon and drew hundreds of comments. Many said it’s disturbing that children so young have to be prepared for a shooting.

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No words. The NRA has now convinced educators to terrorize infants. Meanwhile The Gun is put on a pedestal...America, is this really the solution...FEAR?

April 3, 2018

Police legally seizing guns under Washington red flag laws - The Parkland Effect

And see, the second amendment has not gone up in flames:

"SEATTLE – Alexander Mckenzie, a 31-year-old Army veteran who, according to court documents, is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, recently had his gun confiscated by the Seattle Police Department even though he had committed no crime.

It’s one of 27 guns seized legally by the Seattle Police Department from 16 individuals since last July under Washington State’s new Extreme Risk Protection Order law.

McKenzie had been acting strange, glaring at customers of a pizza restaurant while carrying his handgun. He now agrees with the firearm seizure.

“I’m grateful that the police got the gun away from me,” McKenzie told Fox News.

Washington is one of six states with high risk or red flag laws. But in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, the Brady Campaign says at least 30 states are considering them."

http://www.worshipmedia.ca/2018/04/02/police-legally-seizing-guns-under-red-flag-laws/

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Seattle Police First To Seize Gun Under Washington’s New Mental Health Law

"In the wake of a recent rash of mass shootings in the United States, the Seattle Police Department became the first in the state of Washington to confiscate a citizen’s gun under a newly-enacted law. The law, called an “Extreme Risk Protection Order,” allows police officers in the state to disarm and confiscate the weapons from people deemed to be a danger to others or to themselves.

As KOMO News reports, the private citizen who had his .25 caliber gun confiscated has not been publicly named. However, he was reportedly “well known” to his neighbors for wandering the hallways of his Belltown apartment complex carrying his gun, as well as for “staring down” customers of local businesses while packing his weapon. According to Seattle police, the unidentified man had been making people uncomfortable and intimidating them for approximately a year before his gun was confiscated."

https://www.inquisitr.com/4817690/seattle-police-first-to-seize-gun-under-washingtons-new-mental-health-law/

March 22, 2018

For Many Facebook Users, a Last Straw That Led Them to Quit

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/technology/users-abandon-facebook.html

"Debates over privacy have plagued Facebook for years.

But the news that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm that worked on President Trump’s 2016 campaign, was able to gain access to private data through the social network has sparked an unusually strong reaction among its users.

The hashtag #DeleteFacebook appeared more than 10,000 times on Twitter within a two-hour period on Wednesday, according to the analytics service ExportTweet. On Tuesday, it was mentioned 40,398 times, according to the analytics service Digimind."

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There may be a lot of reasons to stay on Faceplant, social, work, personal, etc., but there is the fact they were complicit in undermining democracy around the world by going to bed with a company that they allowed, for $$$$, no doubt, to seize personal information on 50 million American users with just a pinkie swear they would not misuse it?? FB was at least willfully blind with customers personal information while at the same time they loudly proclaim to protect it. Fool me once...

Is that not a good reason enough? Also, perhaps employers, schools, businesses, institutions, workplaces, etc. maybe need to start a conversation with their stakeholders about whether supporting an usurper of democracy is good idea - no matter how useful, is it worth that price?

If you are on FB, are you planning on deleting?

March 4, 2018

Is "Russian bot" the best term to use to identify real person troll farm postings?

Not only at DU, but generally?

Voting options below. Suggestions?

March 3, 2018

AFL-CIO lauds Trump's tariffs The Hill

Over the top headline, but the tariffs being approved by unions has to be news you can use.

The nation's largest federation of unions on Thursday praised President Trump's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, even as GOP lawmakers in Congress and U.S. trade partners condemned the proposal.

"For years, we have called attention to the predatory practices of some steel exporting countries. Such practices hurt working people and cheat companies that produce in the U.S. We applaud the administration's efforts today to fix this problem," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.

"Trump also received sharp rebukes for the plan by Republicans in Congress, warning of the tax burden such tariffs might impose on working Americans."

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376368-afl-cio-lauds-trumps-move-to-impose-tariffs

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Would tariffs on steel (25% import) and aluminum (10%) be a net positive or a net negative for the economy and blue collar workers?

March 1, 2018

Republican governments are willing to impose government sanctions on domestic corporations for

exercising their first amendment rights*, while refusing to support sanctions on a hostile foreign nation attempting to interfere with those same first amendment rights? All in aid of a single tax exempt, social welfare non-profit?

Have I got that right?

*see Citizens United for the irony

Are Republican state government threats to punish corporations for exercising their first amendment rights illegal and unconstitutional?

February 28, 2018

"Angel Force" to support Stoneman Douglas students at orientation - WSN 7News

PARKLAND, FLA. (WSVN) - A special group will be showing support for the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ahead of the voluntary orientation on campus, Sunday.

The Angel Force plan to spread their wings at the school, Sunday afternoon.

South Florida officials and community members will take part by wearing the symbolic costume, which is known for being a source of comfort and healing since 1993.

Back in 2016, the angels appeared after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

The voluntary orientation is for students, parents and staff members, between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.


https://wsvn.com/news/local/angel-force-to-support-stoneman-douglas-students-at-orientation/


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Full article, but also video clip