Author: anarchronarchist

The true face of ‘bi-partisanship’ Republican style has been revealed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/christie-aide-tied-to-bridge-lane-closings.html

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” she emailed David Wildstein, Mr. Christie’s close friend from high school, and one of his appointees at the Port Authority, which controls the bridge.

“Is it wrong that I am smiling?” Mr. Wildstein texted Ms. Kelly.

“No,” she texted back.

“I feel badly about the kids,” he texted.

“They are the children of Buono voters,” she said, referring to Mr. Christie’s Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, who was trailing consistently in the polls and lost by a wide margin.

Oops.

I am going to refrain on commentary on this other than to say that the recent audit of the Fed has revealed something incredible. It details perhaps the single most significant action taken by the United States (well, the Fed, actually) since dropping the bomb, if not ever. Read on and tell me if I am exaggerating:

The Federal Reserve has bought the world.

From Senator Bernie Sander’s web site:

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. “As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” said Sanders. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”

The GAO report that buries the lede amongst other incredible reports of conflict of interest and other scary stuff.

If you are basically powerless in a conventional sense, you’re only truly effective option is non-violent protest. Until recently this was pretty much limited to civil disobedience and getting your ass beaten by thugs on camera. There are new weapons that can actually get to the elites of the world. We’ve seen social networking outstrip the communications capacities of nations. We’ve seen how, in a world of digital money, enormous value can disappear in seconds, from flash crashes to hacks.

It’s always been my contention that if you want change greater that the system can produce from with, then you must combine a civil political effort with a non-violent, but credible threat of the destruction of the elite’s wealth and position. I’ve always referred to it as ‘The Army of the Twelve Monkeys Strategy’ after the Terry Gilliam movie. Fear that a group is a credible threat to end your control of the world is more powerful than facts or fights or standing armies.

Best part is you don’t have to hurt anyone if you are good enough at it.

How is this?

Same as the old boss?

The unmentionable Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman, head of Egypt’s Higher Military Council.

Meet the new Military Dictator of Egypt.

Had to leave American MSM to find out much about this guy, or even who he is.

I’m not saying I suspect his motives or that his actions won’t follow promises made to the protesters, but they have to stay smart and stay prepared to retake the streets at any time.

But I think as Americans see more images like this one, they will be more comfortable:

.. but the Egyptians may grow more suspicious of their future.

..and we had NO ROLE in shepherding the transition??

Looks like SOMEONE over there knows the value of $1.3 billion annually.

Everyone put on their spock ears for a sec.

My diary often touches on technology and space. I do that to remind us all that one of the critical roles of government has been and likely always will be the expansion of our understanding of the Universe we live in. Our knowledge of the heavens may one day save us from being smashed to bits by a big-ass asteroid, as almost happened TWICE very recently.

But I’m tired of the Fear stuff.

I really think that this stuff is fun. Yes, Government (go NASA!) can be fun, intellectually stimulating, creative, etc. etc.

I’m not for bringing back the propaganda newsreel, but why can’t we talk about the uncontroversial, even cool parts of government. Kinda like the CIA’s kids page, but less cognitively dissonant.

Anyhow.

I was just reading a CNN article on the recent fly-by we did on the comet Hartley 2 (the second comet this same vehicle has visited!), and I had a thought (video at end of diary).

Consider this: Comets travel great distances – perhaps even interstellar distances – and then eventually end up orbiting one star or another in a great ellipse. Perhaps they can even be ‘poached’ by one star from another.

Doesn’t it make sense then, that they could be used and should be explored as the simplest, least resource intensive and perhaps then most likely form of interstellar communication?

In a Universe of nearly endless stars with endless planets, basically every reasonably possible thing is occurring SOMEWHERE right now.

Including hurling comets towards suspected populated planetary systems with which to just say, ‘Hi’.

Interstellar comet-mail. With sufficiently detailed maps of the nearby Universe, one might even plot comet courses that eventually hit several star systems. Kinda like our vehicle has visited multiple stars.

Shouldn’t we be looking at comets for signs of artificial manipulation from distant intelligence? I mean we’re already doing fly-bys.

But shouldn’t we also consider ourselves using comets as interstellar messengers or even homing pigeons?

Just a thought.

Here’s video of the comet (after the stupid ad):

Geek out.

From the New York Times:

updated 9/27/2010 3:49:08 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan — The top American commander in Afghanistan said Monday that senior Taliban leaders had reached out to President Hamid Karzai in the context of early efforts to start reconciliation discussions that could pave the way to end the fighting in Afghanistan.

For months, efforts at reconciliation have been stalled at every level, and this is the first explicit public suggestion that there is extensive behind-the-scenes activity between insurgents and the Afghan government.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, in a meeting with reporters after a tour of the Detention Facility in Parwan, where American forces detain Afghans they suspect of supporting the insurgency, said there were efforts by Taliban to establish contact with senior members of the Afghan government.

“There are very high-level Taliban leaders who have sought to reach out to the highest levels of the Afghan government, and they have done that,” General Petraeus said…

Full story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39384567/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

Turns out we’re gonna wake up dead one day because an asteroid has smashed us good.

There is a pretty darn big rock coming potentially between the Earth and Moon today – only 0.2 the distance away from Earth as the Moon. It’s the second big rock that has come withing a Moon’s reach of Earth in less than 48 hours.

The more we look up, the more we realize there are a LOT of REALLY BIG things whizzing about REALLY FAST. We don’t actually want to find out what happens when one of these things hits us (despite all the movies on the subject).

This is definitely a situation where the outlandish spending part of our defense budget might be better applied or even expanded to stimulating effect.

We need to massively develop our observation capacity – we need to see everything that is coming our way, and in enough time.

We need to re-deploy and re-engineer existing technologies in order to fashion a secure, reliable response. Blowing REALLY BIG, REALLY FAST things to smithereens in outer space should appeal to everyone on ‘ever-so-many levels.’

We need to hire scientists and provide a long term project that provides CAREERS, and not just jobs. These are careers that produce successful people – people who see a return on their investment in education and pass it on to their kids and their region’s economy and quality of life after they are gone.

We need to be at the forefront of space-based technologies for ‘ever-so-many reasons.’

We need to orient our defense structure to eliminate existing threats BEFORE we confront potential threats. Doesn’t it make sense to eliminate the low probability/high impact threats you know are real; that have the certitude of orbits and the laws of gravity; before one addresses long past threats and chickenhawk visions of Armageddon?

We need a defense establishment, and while we do, won’t it be nice to know that much of it is pointed at not-humans for once? Perhaps, as we come to understand more about the scale and immediacy of the asteroid threat, anti-asteroid efforts could eventually draw more and more spending from less fruitful, death-based activities.

It’s going to take time. It’s going to take a lot of money. But who else will keep our children safe?

If there is one lesson we’ve all learned from the little Gulf Oil Spill thingy is that too much regulation forces the extremely competent and careful energy companies to do riskier and riskier things. The fact that they have been consistently deregulated for decades could never make up for the over-regulation that happened… at some point I guess.

If only environmental radicals had not forced our energy companies to drill where they do, none of this would ever have happened (certainly not all in ONE DAY):

West Virginia gas well blast injures 7; flames now 40 feet

Marcellus gas well blows out in Pennsylvania; gas, drilling fluid shoot 75 feet into air

At least 10 missing after Texas gas line explosion

The Gulf Oil Slick is only a small breeze of the whirlwind we will continue to reap if we don’t just hand over all remaining regulatory control to the regulated and just wipe the gov’t off the map! Who’s with me??!!

Looks like Americans are still better than others at one thing: terrorist attacks. Pakistan taliban? Tools. Montana cowards who hate cancer patients? Apparently, they have their terrorist chops sharp.

I demand a $3 trillion dollar response protecting these small businessmen and those like them and the very ill patients they serve!!

BILLINGS, Mont., May 10 (UPI) — Two medical marijuana stores  were firebombed and vandalized in Billings, Mont., authorities and owners said.

Both stores had “not in our town” spray-painted on them, the Billings Gazette reported.

David Couch of Big Sky Patient Care said he was told his business was hit about 5 a.m. Sunday while he was out of town. Surveillance video shows one person spray-painting the message while another throws a firebomb through the front door of the business, which had just opened in recent weeks.

The second attack occurred about 4:30 a.m. Monday at Montana Therapeutics, the Gazette said. Fire department battalion Chief Ed Regele described the firebomb as a “Molotov cocktail.”

full story

This mandate thing is killing me. The position that Obama took in the primaries is the correct one. It is why I supported him from the get go. He had it right in Iraq from day one and he had it right on health care reform. Had.

I think anyone who may or may not benefit from HCR may eventually abandon support because of the mandate and it’s IRS-collected fines.

It is onerous and wrong for many reasons. It is fascism to compel the public to buy insurance from private companies with the IRS enforcing. In other words, we are now going to have to pay taxes directly to private corporations. Our nation’s favorite war was against fascism, remember?

The millions of people who will now be insured may not be as happy about it as one might think. Is it that great to have the IRS compel you to pay a bill you were not available to afford in the first place?

As Old Obama said, “People don’t have insurance because they can’t afford it, not because they don’t want it.” There was obviously some political calculus in the sausage making that made the flip make sense at the time. I think it is poison to the long term success of the reform.

Unless..

After putting on a good show on a few other issues, it is critical that we get back to fixing this, or at least talking about it before the next election.

The New BF Deal is simple: Live with this nasty Mandate or resurrect the public option. There won’t be any Repug support, but by then the question will have changed to something like “Do you want the IRS on your ass or do you want a public option that is more affordable to buy?”

It is a lot more palatable/reasonable to pay taxes to the government in return for a non-profit entitlement, versus paying taxes that will be artificially higher, so as to include a healthy profit margin for private corporations.

Perhaps we could even hope for a hybrid: no mandate per se, but a public option that sets pricing for both it’s participants AS WELL AS any uninsured that use services. The later group could then be compelled to pay via the IRS (mandated payment for services rendered vs. for insurance), having actually used a service, plus some fine/interest. That would limit the IRS enforcement to people who owe money for health care services versus, well, potentially everyone.