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In the News
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Psychological Warfare by Social Media: The Battle For One...
By Judith Durbin via vocativ.com 5/20
Syrian rebels under siege in a strategic city on the Lebanese border are increasingly turning to social media to wage psychological warfare, according to Vocativ analysts monitoring the region.
The town of Al Qusayr has become ground zero in the war between rebel fighters on the one side and the joint forces of President Bashar Al Assad and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on the other. Some of the most intense fighting has taken place there over the last few days. The New York Times reports both sides consider this battle a turning point in the larger civil war that has been raging for more than two years.
With so...
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The Bigger Story Behind the AP Spying Scandal
A collection of links and comments dealing with government spying and intimidation of journalists
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Vitamins That Cost Pennies a Day Seen Delaying DementiaA cheap regimen of vitamins in use for decades is seen by scientists as a way to delay the start of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a goal that prescription drugs have failed to achieve. / Drugmakers including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) have spent billions of dollars on ineffective therapies in a so-far fruitless effort to come up with a treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s. / Now, in the latest of a steady drumbeat of research that suggests diet, exercise and socializing remain patients’ best hope, a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that vitamins B6 and B12 combined with folic acid slowed atrophy of gray matter in brain areas affected by...
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Is Venezuela becoming a failed state?
By Juan Nagel, Transitions blog @ ForeignPolicy.com, May 16, 2013
[....] The consensus is that Venezuela needs high oil prices just to stay afloat. But if the fracking oil boom results in low oil prices, what does the future hold for the South American country?
Sadly, Venezuelans have nothing else to fall back on. Its private industry is a shambles, and the country is even importing toilet paper. Years of populism have left the state crippled and heavily in debt. The public deficit...
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What the Hell Was That All About?... has North Korea slunk...
By Aidan Foster-Carter, ForeignPolicy.com Op-Ed, May 20, 2013
[....] Pyongyang's faux rage at Security Council Resolutions 2087 of Jan. 22, and 2095 of March 7, which condemned its rocket launch and nuclear test respectively, recycled similar ludicrous canards it hurled at similar resolutions in 2006 and 2009, calling the Security Council, a "marionette of the U.S." A U.S. plot, and puppet? Hardly: Every resolution has been unanimous. China and Russia water down the wording, but they're on board. It's North Korea versus the world.
And that's just the way they like it. Some believe that all their banging and shouting is just a...
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Yeah, thanks.
The repubs are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
They really do not wish to defend the AP and they will never defend the prez. hahaha
I watched that damn Cornyn today. What a joke.
Quite the opposite - I'm saying they don't suddenly have overriding significance just because you say they do.
But to be fair, yes, we're both selfish and want words and our arguments to frame our preferences. You say to-may-to and I say to-mah-to. But quite...
Do I have to spell it out for you? A disarmed citizen, is no threat to a tyrannical government. Where have you been,???? during this Syria crisis or the Arab Spring movement? Once the citizens are armed, they no longer have to endure the slaughter, of an abusive regime, they can...
Thanks, interesting addition to the issue!
Nobody believes that the gun- toting nitwits at the NRA will give a flip about feeding the poor. The likelihood that random gun toting nuts would violently suppress any press that disagreed with their viewpoint is high. I see nothing suggesting a savior to be found in random guys and gals with...
Corrected link
Calm down Resistance. I suppose somewhere in there I can find the reason I keep a loaded weapon under my pillow. Thanks a lot.
Are you questioning the sincerity of Darrell Issa and the Republican Party, their love for and devotion to America, with their unending Benghazi probes?
...
I don't see that info. about Senator Obama in your link, sure you put the right one?
Edit to add: Though this in the article you linked to did catch my eye
Can we agree, our Government could give a shite about the lives of Americans? It's goal is to be of service to those with money. "So a few Americans died in Benghazi; you say they called out for help" "You say a few Americns need welfare support and...
It turns out that Senator Obama co-sponsored a bill that would have made...
Bruce, this op-ed struck me as exceptionally eye clearing: The real danger of Syria’s sectarian stalemate by Bernard Haykel, The Globe and Mail. It took me back...
Allowing political groups to pretend to be social welfare organizations is a farce. The republicans in the House will do nothing to change this ridiculous situation.
Richard, can we all agree that the immeasurable continuing national tragedy of Benghazi is a worse failure than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor? That it needs to be investigated until this nation no longer remembers what that word means, or why we keep loaded guns under our pillows?
That it has...
A rather selfish response, I think PP. I read your comment to mean that words matter only when you say they do.
This is just insanely wonderful. I'm in awe. (I may even watch the movie now.)
You didn't deny there were atrocities, but you denied there were mass graves, hence the link.
It seems like you're trying to persuade me that the Kosovo War was unjustified, but I said I already thought that.
I don't think the wikipedia article casts...
Thank goodness Fitzgerald was no Theodore Dreiser. Speaking as a fellow Hoosier subjected against her teenage will to a high-school reading of Sister Carrie, one Dreiser was more than enough.
I doubt the movie will come this way--in my smallish city, we get all the action...
My quilt guild was call in for an audit with the IRS a couple of years after it went to a 501-c4. We didn't have but a few thousand dollars of raised funds for our charity quilts. Tust me we spent it on quilt supplies and a hall rental for a quilt show to raise more money for...
He would drill with my National Guard unit for points in 1988-89. He was in the in the IRR(Inactive Ready Reserves) and was a 2ndLt. I was a E-6 full time tech. My guys would beg me to keep him away from them. He was as insane as he is now. The African Americans didn't take...
The colonist wanted neither British BS or the new and improved British BS...... From my perception, the Constitution wouldn't have been ratified, if you had told the colonists "throw off the Kings yoke and put on ours"..... Those who...
I didn't say there weren't atrocities committed, but during the hysteria of 1999 there was frequent speculation that there would be far far worse than what this article tells, and the numbers that followup investigations came up with. Even the "untold...
On the other hand, one could argue that our political system really was founded partly on disputing taxes.....shouldn't it sort of be sacrosant that one can do that politically without ramifications from the federal government?
Yeah, well that era ended pretty quickly with...
I've written 10's of thousands of words trying to get discourse. Just because Bruce is offended by a position opposing his own or finds a word offensive doesn't mean I stepped over the line. And often words are used to reflexively frame the argument - don't say this or that or...
This is great, Doc. Haven't heard it called a writing binge before but I've been there a few times. Exhilarating and all too rare. I'm not always happy with the results afterward but it's like a party when it's happening.
I used to try to follow rigid...
Stymied? You mean to say; Obama (r) won't have to move unwillingly to the left after all; he's been saved by the scapegoat? Appearances are deceiving.
Those in power know the Tea party or Patriot parties are a threat to the plutocracy. You "serfs" are not to be allowed a different or unknown financial support system, it is a cause of great consternation to them. "You must obey the rules" THEY have established, to keep them...
Those who control the the purse ....CONTROL ... Get rid of the income tax; most everyone knows; the only ones paying, are the middle class anyways ........ Defense of the United States should come only from duties and tariffs....... If your State wants to ignore...
The CIA guy apparently had bags of dollars, disguises and was roaming Dagestan looking for terrorists or informers on terrorists. Keystone Cops comes to mind.
Obama always seems to be out front whenever Republicans are upset about something. I really think he should have shut up until the...
You're absolutely correct AA--these groups are obviously suspect. On the other hand, and I honestly haven't been following this closely, but the IRS, if it targeted the anti-tax groups, acted beyond its mandate and is either setting or observing a horrible existing precedent....
...and he thought all he had to do was cut Social Security to achieve victory!
Hah! And Putin's kicking out an American spy and doesn't get a single brownie point for that from anyone, it seems!
More seriously, I find the IRS story somewhat thought provoking....
The judge found "good cause" and the insanity plea was entered yesterday:
...and he thought all he had to do was cut Social Security to achieve victory!
Obama might have waited for the IG report on the IRS before expressing 'outrage'. The GOP howls and Obama jumps.
The IRS may be that rare find in government, were they just doing...
Watch Jay Carney Dodge Approximately One Billion Scandal-Related Questions at His Daily Press Briefing
hahhahaha
Show up on Friday and play Haiku for chrissakes Resistance. hahahah
Yeah things are bad; but they sure could be badder!
Thats okay ....... Rose would say ..... The weathers nice ..... in Gauntanamo Bay.
The Hill:
Holder recused himself...
OH DAVID!
Give me a link or something or something will ya?
I miss ya.
Nothing to do with the question "To binge or not to binge?" but I came across this just hours ago, allegedly from a guy who also seems to understand the process. Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Good Writing:
1....
Hi Arthur!
Keep well
Big hug
David
According to Greer, this...
As I recall, Curly Rand attempted to walk this rant back a few blocks.
These people are so very dangerous.
Lawrence got into this 501 c issue last night.
WE SHOULD NEVER ALLOW DEDUCTIONS FOR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
This practice amounts to positive reinforcement for aberrant behavior on the part of the corporations.
But you are right about all these new 'scandals';...
The problems with out nation's politics and government has everything to do with money. It has nothing to do with guns.
The greatest libertarian light of gun toting Kentucky Freedom in Congress, Rand Paul, Son of Paul,...
By the way, the mass graves were found.
http://balkanwitness.glypx.com/graves.htm
One or two Britons who testified before a Parliamentary commission claimed that...
Did the AP find out that the DOJ had tracked reporters or were they told in a letter from the DOJ? Did the IRS admit to targeting Conservative groups or not? What has been covered up in Benghazi?
It may turn out that what the DOJ did in investigating a...
I'm just sayin' and I think accurately. Next time I express a bit more sensitivity about something said or written about Jews or Zionists, think about what you wrote here about words mattering, and pause before you launch into your Bruce is possessed by demons bit. It might...
It was reported that a quarter of a million left Kosovo before the Nato bombing. You've listed some of the reasons I opposed the Kosovo war(why are you trying to persuade me after I already said I opposed it?), but I can't agree that Milosevic was only partly responsible for the...
Benghazi? IRS abuse? AP investigation? Telecom wiretaps? Drone surveilence? On and on, the abuses are uncovered. .......... "Trust us, we're from the Governement, we swear; if you register your guns, we won't come for them...
Here is the latest post on Pinecraft Blog. http://pinecraft-sarasota.blogspot.com/2013/05/lenas-amish-granola.html#links By the way the granola bars are really good and made by hand in Ohio....
If you can point me to a place I said or acted like words have no meaning, happy to review & see if a retraction in order.
Words can be important even if sometimes "sticks and stones..." might be a better reaction, and sometimes people fall to the fainting couch over some...
Yeah, where are those huge mass graves everyone assured us existed?
While I'm not the hugest Chomsky fan, in this case much of the go-to-war excuses were overhyped FUD.
There were about 100,000 who left Kosovo before the bombing (how many were "expelled" vs. just left...
Congress really does not wish to accomplish anything!
Just trip up the dems whenever you can and spend millions on messaging.
The good news?
If Mitt had won, all sorts of things would be in the works.
And all of them very very bad!
Does he really fly the Confederate Flag?
Damn!
How can he be filled with so much self hate?
Batcrap Crazy Republicans are like bad pennies, they keep turning up. Rick Scott is floating Allen West's name for Lt. Gov. replacement. The last Florida Lt. Gov. had to resign. ...
One of the side effects of the rigid insanity of the GOP is that issues that could be explored with rational people in Congress cannot be examined. Watching the recent Republican Benghazi witch hunt, one rapidly realizes that Congress will play absolutely no role in providing any useful...
Its ok to binge. Even if its not your best stuff just sit down and write! We can all learn a lot from this guy.
Actually, writing is more like seducing a beautiful woman. No, more like shooting an indignant elephant. No, more like invading Poland with a horde of screaming Tatars. Oh, forget it.
I always assumed that the clock-punching advice was mainly for procrastinators who won't sit down to...
Yes. You still have to put in your time when the current's against you, but you also have to take advantage of your productive moments and make sure you get everything you can while you can. You have to make space for that productivity.
I think what I object to is the industrial,...
The Serbs killed several thousand civilians in Kosovo during the ten weeks of the Nato war, and about half a million were driven out(not counting those killed or expelled before Nato intervention). I wouldn't call that "fairly low". And although I opposed the...
HAHAHAHAHAH
Eggsactly my point!
I support all the things you are talkin about, and voted twice for George W. Bush fore I realized he was a liberal. So then I joined the Tea Party and scraped that Bush/Cheney 04 sticker off my '84 Voyager.
I think you forgot though bout the...
just like it...
Jeepers. I'm the one who used genocide, and I am not friggin' wedded to it for the reasons AA articulated. And my second-guessing of automatic isolationism does not in any way depend upon the existence of a genocide per se.
I am glad, however, that you...
As all the online “how to recognize a fake guru or a false prophet” websites warn: it’s a bad sign when your guru exhibits greediness and accumulates expensive...
Another "give me a break" moment. If someone uses the word "genocide" they're using semantics to try to make an event heavy. Killing 70,000 people during an uprising is typically not "genocide" - especially if killed by both sides - nor is it "kindergarten...
That is interesting. Mac Wellman, when he teaches, directs his students to write plays that contain things the author hates to sit through. Sentimentality is a common response. Also, children and animals on stage...
Yes, but excuses that don't involve your people getting massacred are less convincing as mitigation. The excuse for the ethnic cleansing of Germans after World War II (the Germans did terrible things to us) is better than the excuse for Nazi exterminations(they've done us no...
I write like a raft on a stream. Sometimes swift currents hurdle it down the creek, and my only is job is to avoid the rocks. Sometimes the water is stagnant, and hours of sweaty paddling barely move the boat. So when I do catch that current, I run with it as long as I can hold out.
There was a major grand larceny case in NYC for "cleansing money" that finished up last week--article mentions that fortune telling alone is just a misdemeanor. I...
Yeah, and if the situation results in a civil war the Sunnis can now cite the extreme provocation of the Shiites to justify any of their atrocities and it goes on and on and on.
"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind....
An example of genocide - when all the thousands of residents of a city are surrounded and captured by armed militias, and every last one is executed and buried in a mass grave (in an attempt to cover up the crime), as happened in Srebrenica see my link below.
There are always excuses aren't there?
I've had a similar experience with tarot cards and other spiritual practices. I'm something of a skeptic and I try not to fall into confirmation bias but I think whenever one takes any practice seriously and practices with due diligence things start happening that just can't be...
Interesting. I stand corrected. Illegal in NYC too, apparently.
It should perhaps be said that the Shiites who cleansed Sunnis had suffered extreme provocation; they were butchered and tormented by Sunnis both under Saddam Hussein and in the years after the American invasion.
I wonder how the film was pitched, as in the fashion seen in the beginning of Robert Altman's The Player. My guess is something like "It's Dallas meets Moulin Rouge...I hear Robert Downey Jr is very interested in the Jay Gatsby role..."
That wasn't my point. The number of 120,000 was just some number I pulled out of my arse. My point was: Especially in places like Africa and the Middle East the borders of the various states do not correspond to perspectives of ideology and religion, nor to ethnicity, etc. ...
(1) Kosovo, a part of a disintegrating Yugoslavia, is in Europe. Syria is in the Middle East.
(2) Kosovo is a little over 4,000 square miles, Syria over 71,000, and well over 10 times the population.
(3) The Kosovo intervention was supported by NATO nations and armed forces,...
Then 19,810,000 Syrians are safe, in the clear. Almost all of the 1.4 million refugees are good to go, back home. Only 120,000 need protection.
p.s. Also similar: the KLA, not always a group deserving of great sympathy.
You're arguing semantics about the use of the term genocide; I've heard tell this is quite a popular debate for many sundry participants with various agenda. It goes round and round and never gets resolved because it's all about the impact of a single very loaded word.
...But what if those same 70,000 belong to a specific targeted sub-set of the Syrian population? Rather than being 70,000 out of 20,000,000; it becomes something like 70,000 out of 190,000.
I have some fragments of a blog with which I am tinkering about, in part, my experience reading tarot cards for friends. I had started with some friend back toward the end of my college days bringing a tarot card deck to the bar a group of us were hanging out in. At first, the readings...
Back in the 20th Century I read an interview with a playwright discussing his latest play - I can't remember the name of it, but over the course of the play chairs begin to pile up in a bar or restaurant, each one representing someone who had died AIDS. What I remember from the...
x2 too. Great piece. I'm putting my money on you at the next Moviecritic-mania, where I'm sure you'll put a figure four leg-lock on Richard Roeper and clinch the title with a literary submission hold. I wasn't particularly interested in seeing this...
That's an interesting idea - maybe just as Cuba once tried (& partially succeeded) to push on us the worst of the worst with the Mariel boatlift, they can be the isolated gulag for our supposed incorrigibles - instead of our whorehouse of the Caribbean, we can set up terrorist tourism....
Thank you for the very good points. My income doesn't let me shop organic foods like I would like too. So I have searched out a way to provide some good quality foods with a share of a CSA farm and doing some growing for myself. It is important to have choices. ...
We agree on something after all. I did not get your tongue-in-cheek joke. But that's OK, sorry I missed a chuckle but I can handle it and I don't care whether or not you explain it.
As to your assertion that I used "The language of the anti-union corporate elite"...
Assata Shakur was first classified as a domestic terrorist on May 2, 2005, on the 32nd anniversary of the death of the NJ trooper, in which incident she was also shot.
The Presidency changes, and the FBI goes...