Saturday, March 4, 2017

Weekend Open Thread

Have at it.

9 comments:

Elizabeth -- Marysville said...

Thank you for your blog roll on the right of your page -- I have found some really good sites I peruse every day because of you. And I see some new ones have been added, one of which gave me some good LOLs this morning.

Mark Thomason said...

The FISA court that allows secret wiretapping turned down just one request out of thousands over years, according to reports apparently reliable.

That suggests that if they had wanted to wiretap Trump's operation, they could have, complete with a proper warranet.

Would they want to? Well, the allegations of Russian action are exactly the sort of thing that is supposed to spur them into action. They ought to have done so, by the rules we've come to accept.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, or the right way to run the country, but it is how it is being run. We should not be surprised if the system does what we know it does.

Jamie said...


Manhattan to New Canaan
_______________________________


Motion again, Manhattan to New Canaan!
By the fasting Buddha's so swiftly,
This train moves northbound.
Goodbye to Rome on the Hudson
We float on electronic rivers,
Like uprooted trees
Spinning toward a divine lightening.
Time ushers us on,
A commodity of tragedy.
Man is so close
As to only dream the spaces between.

Underground I write
In the cobwebs of Grand Central Station.
Pointed northwards towards the cooling forests,
September and harvest,
Do these rails tend so painfully stretched,
So buried in this city of cities of cities.
Manhattan is all the cities of earth,
Set aside each other
Floating on the motherfucker of invention.

We crawl slowly above the sputtering rails.
"Faster," I say.
I wish to see the stars open the pathways,
Tunneling to worlds of gods and guardians,
Not these dreary sculptured bricks of low-income housing
The 99th street stables for the black war workers,
Who built the machines that pounded Dresden,
Only to be discarded and caged once more
In the demonic kennels of Empire.

Economics! Lineages! Chains reaching out,
Reflexes unconsciously compelling,
All directions,
Galaxies of DNA,
Karmas blossoming exactingly.
We are so intricate, like Lazarus,
Who Christ restructured in the desert of a crowd
"Miller Time" for the Buddhas,
Who dance their ecstatic feet upon bloody Tibet,
China's doom --
All present as I cross the Harlem river,
The Bronx,
"Ain't that tough enough?"
Krishna in a 72 Chevy.

The old silver-haired man to my right falls asleep
Resting on my shoulder.
The power leaves but on I write,
As I prop up this great white fuck of a man,
Fuck of my ancestors, of Stamford, Connecticut
Where a Buddha grew to love green fields and girls.
My aura flows into this sleeping testament of life,
A trick of the spirit.
I concede to him my arm and my power,
For into other worlds do I lean wearily,
Expecting nothing less.

I ruffle the pages of this poem,
The old sleeper awakens,
For a moment,
Embarrassed,
Erect against the boxcar air,
Yet again, like a soggy reed,
He lands unknowingly on my shoulder.

Where are we on this evening train?
Have the angels shut the stars closed?
All I see is a nothingness against the glass.
Man's reflections pale against his works,
His great white history and conquest,
Results -- now asleep against my shoulder
On a train,
Awaiting New Canaan.

annenigma said...

This sounds like a better idea than doing away with comments entirely which is what many papers have recently done.

'Norway's Plan to Fight Trolls: Make Them Read the Article'

"Norwegian public broadcaster NRK is testing out a novel way to civilize its online comment sections: a multiple-choice quiz about the content. The quiz ensures that commenters have read the story and helps to keep discussions on topic by establishing 'a common ground for the debate'."

https://www.axios.com/norways-plan-to-fight-trolls-make-sure-theyve-read-the-article-2293404478.html

Jay–Ottawa said...

Everybody's talking about some form of entertainment this weekend. Allow me to join in.

If you don't like banks, if you hate the people who run the banks (I don't mean to criticize the people who work at the registers), if you ever wanted to spit in the eye of a bank president, if you'd like to cheat them back in a very fancy way, go see "Come Hell or High Water."

It's a film about a couple of nobodies who, at some risk, subject a thieving bank to revenge and justice. Then there's a couple of Texas Rangers who see it differently. The film should have taken Oscars for at least a few of the following: acting, script, costumes, photography, direction, and making you feel the sweat of West Texas. Coarse talk, the usual violence, no nudity. You all sure will be grateful for my telling you not to miss it.

Patrice Ayme said...

The Plutos rule. Maybe they told their servants, the Dems to go after the Russians, a ridiculous, hopeless, endehavor, because suddenly the Plutos have become reasonable, and want to give Donald a chance...
For quite a while, I have said we have a very serious NORTH KOREA(/China) problem. Now it has been officially revealed (NYT!) that Obama said as much to the Donald. And that the "cyber war" didn't work. So maybe real war, hence the change of heart...

Meredith NYC said...

Perfect for weekend relaxation badly needed?
2 things gave me a good laugh. One was a comment using the phrase sycophantic invertebrates to describe the congress----it hit my funny bone, and has a nice syncopated rhythm. Or change it to spineless sickophants-- slithering away from truth, evidence, duty to country.

And ---Here's the tops in satire from New Yorker Borowitz:

“PUTIN DEMANDS SESSIONS RESIGN FROM RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

By Andy Borowitz March 2, 2017

MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—In a stunning rebuke of the Attorney General, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Jeff Sessions resign from the Russian government “at once.”

Speaking at the Kremlin, Putin said that the controversies swirling around Sessions in Washington “no longer make it possible for Jeff Sessions to function as an integral part of the Kremlin team.”

Putin asserted that Sessions had “become a distraction,” and ordered the Alabama native to clear out his desk at the Kremlin “by Friday morning at the latest.”

While Kremlin sources said that forcing Sessions’s resignation was “a necessary measure,” they would not guarantee that he was the only member of the Trump Cabinet who would be expelled from the Russian government.

“We’ve put a dozen of them on notice,” one Kremlin source said.”

annenigma said...

This is what was going on during the Obama administration:

'Class Action Suit: Immigrants Held in Aurora Required to Work for $1 a Day, Threatened With Solitary if Refused - Suit on behalf of 62,000 detainees could have far-reaching impact as President Trump ramps up immigration enforcement'

"Colorado felons are also paid a fraction of the state minimum wage for their work in prison, but they have been convicted of crimes and have lost certain rights as a consequence, including the right to own guns and to vote. But the people held at the Aurora facility are only civilly detained."

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/02/class-action-ice-detention-aurora-immigration/

annenigma said...

Wow, after the Democrats demanded an investigation of 'Russia hacking the election' as if it were fact despite a lack of evidence, the media's now criticizing Trump for calling for an investigation because he doesn't have any evidence!

Then perjurer/Chief Liar Clapper, of all people, comes out and publicly denies it, and Obama, in his carefully parsed way denies 'ordering' it, but didn't deny that Trump was spied on by his administration.

Obama and Clapper are actually rubbing Trump's nose in it. Every day it seems more like a PsyOp is being run. You can almost hear them snickering.

'Six ways to Sunday'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/03/05/trump-seeks-congressional-probe-into-politically-motivated-investigation-during-2016-campaign/