If he were alive today, Mr. Bill Mauldin, two-time Pulitzer Prize honoree, and one of the greatest editorial cartoonists of all time, might slightly alter one of his best known cartoons from his book, Up Front. He might choose to make a serious point about the man occupying the White House today.*
Mr. Trump has shut down our government hurting the most vulnerable federal employees and suppliers by taking away their weekly pay; he's hurt the American people by creating a seriously stupid gaping hole in our border security by not paying our Homeland Security people; he's put at risk countless people by taking away the weekly pay of our Coast Guard service members.
There simply is no justification for Mr. Trump's shutdown. None, that is, save for one that only a psychopath could come up with... causing needless pain for the most vulnerable of our people. And, then seemingly enjoying every second of their pain to get his way.
Oh, the cost? In a recent article, the Washington Post quotes S&P Global analysts saying, "...a shutdown would cost the economy about $6.5 billion per week.
Druid statue in the park
Croome Park, Worcs, England
By PicturePrince - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44271891
Gaius Julius Caesar feared the Druids. He knew them as powerful, knowledgeable, leaders of the Celts, the people who lived in northern Europe from Ireland to Turkey. So, he did his best to eliminate them. Sadly, through much of Europe and Britain, he and other Roman conquers succeeded. But they never subdued the people of the land that is today called Ireland.
The Druids knew a thing or two about life and how one might live in our world. They excelled in what we call medicine today. They knew about healing. Possibly, more than we understand today.
Fortunately, a few researchers are learning about the old ways and applying them today.
Take Dr. Gerry Quinn, for example. As a resident of Boho, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, he grew up with the healing traditions of the area which was, “previously occupied by the Druids, around 1500 years ago, and Neolithic people 4000 years ago”.
Quinn knew that, “Traditionally a small amount of soil was wrapped up in cotton cloth and used to heal many ailments including toothache, throat and neck infections.”
Later in life, as a member of the Swansea University Medical School research team, he applied his knowledge by analyzing, “ancient soil from Ireland long thought to have medicinal properties”. Low and behold, the team discovered that the soil, “contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria which is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA.”
Professor Paul Dyson of Swansea University Medical School said:
"This new strain of bacteria is effective against 4 of the top 6 pathogens that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA. Our discovery is an important step forward in the fight against antibiotic resistance.”
“Our results show that folklore and traditional medicines are worth investigating in the search for new antibiotics. Scientists, historians and archaeologists can all have something to contribute to this task. It seems that part of the answer to this very modern problem might lie in the wisdom of the past."
My guess is that it's likely there is more to learn from our ancestors. Perhaps we should look and listen. We might discover that the Druids knew more than just about an antibiotic that takes out MRSA.
Zone of inhibition produced by Streptomyces sp myrophorea on a lawn of MRSA. The bacteria is the brown spot, and the lighter color around the spot shows that it is inhibiting the spread of the MRSA which is surrounding it. Credit: G Quinn, Swansea University
Anthony Peratt 3: Stickman on Stone Please see link below.
Do you subscribe to the idea that learning is forever?
I do.
I’ve come to search for “rational” answers to perplexing anomalies which simply don’t make sense when viewed from accepted or “orthodox” teachings. One of these is astrophysics. Simply put, I have serious issues with how our science professionals, historians, and religious leaders see our universe and humankind’s place within it.
In many ways, The Electric Universe offers a refreshing perspective on some of these conundrums. Perhaps, like the federal government, the science of astrophysics might be in the wrong hands.
Here's a thought, if stupid is forever, as one of my friends remarked, alternatively, the new year may offer us a chance to learn more about the "truth" of our existence and prove to ourselves that we no longer must remain willfully stupid.
Wal Thornhill: Blockbuster – Saturn/Earth Connection Confirmed | Space News
ThunderboltsProject
Published on Dec 19, 2018
A new scientific paper provides stunning affirmation of one of the most striking predictions of the Electric Universe/catastrophist hypothesis. The paper, published in the Journal Icarus, reports that the water on Saturn’s moons and in its rings is remarkably similar to water on our own planet, a completely unexpected finding for planetary scientists.
As surprising as this connection between Saturn and Earth is for planetary scientists, the connection was in fact explicitly predicted by one of the great scientific heretics of the 20th century. Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky proposed that within human memory, a period of chaos reigned in the inner solar system. In this scenario, one of the migrating planets was Saturn, and it was Velikovsky’s seemingly outrageous thesis that the water in Earth’s oceans came from the gas giant. In part one of this two part presentation, physicist Wal Thornhill outlines the incredible and ongoing predictive success of the electric universe/catastrophist paradigm.
“President Donald Trump’s personal charity has agreed to
shut down amid an ongoing ethics investigation into its finances, the New York
attorney general announced on Tuesday.”
“The agreement follows a court ruling last month that a
lawsuit filed against the Donald J. Trump Foundation by Attorney General
Barbara Underwood in June will be allowed to move forward.”
“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,” Underwood said in a statement. “This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.”
In honor of our hope for truth and justice during this Christmas Season... Ddo you hear what I hear?
"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker.
Noel Regney wrote the lyrics for the song, while Gloria Shayne Baker composed the Christmas carol's music in October 1962. This was an unusual arrangement for the two writers. Usually it was Baker who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, as they did on their classic children's song "Rain Rain Go Away".
"Do You Hear what I Hear?" was released shortly after Thanksgiving in 1962. The song was originally recorded by the Harry Simeone Chorale. It went on to sell more than quarter-million copies during the 1962 Christmas holiday season.
Wallace and Gromit on the Moon enjoying their cheese and crackers.
One or two of my friends say we never landed on the moon. All that NASA stuff was faked.
I don't know about that.
But, like the guy below, writer/director S G Collins, I wasn't there to see them exit their lander, either. Still, I did watch the moon landing on "live" TV. And, like Collins, I worked with studio stuff back in the olden days. For me, it seems a bit out of reach to believe the technology of that time would have been up to the degree of fakery required.
So, here is the story... anyway.
Moon Landings Faked? Filmmaker Says Not! - 2013
Writer/director S G Collins of Postwar Media debunks every theory that the Apollo Moon landings could have been faked in a studio. The filmmaker takes a look at the video technology of the late 1960's, showing alleged fraud was simply not possible.
I suspect this is what happened after the real moon landing: A Grand Day Out - Landing on the Moon - Wallace and Gromit - 1989
Wallace and Gromit land on the Moon to hunt for Cheese in this classic clip from the Oscar winning film, A Grand Day Out.
Official Movie Synopsis
Wallace and his sophisticated dog Gromit, have to decide where to go for their annual picnic. With a home-made rocket and large appetite they head for the moon, hoping to find it made of cheese. Their moon tasting arouses the anger of the moon’s resident, mechanical caretaker. In the conflict that ensues the earthlings unwittingly help the robot to fulfil its dreams. Download the film from ITunes: http://goo.gl/zAJem7
How big must the scandal be… how much money, how deep, how many people must be involved… before you start to puke, like a sick puppy?
When will we call our Congress people to tell them that we want something done about it? When will we call our pension fund managers, city county and state treasurers, and tell them to stop buying U.S. securities because we have lost trust in our U.S. government?
Yes, this is more than screwed-up accounting errors.
Even today, in the age of the most corrupt presidency in the history of the U.S., this scandal dwarfs all preceding scandals. This one is no run-of-the-mill Trump corruption.
No, this is $21 trillion, and likely much more. This one takes malfeasance and misfeasance to the highest degree in the history mankind.
This scandal begs the question: How is possible for any citizen to trust our government with our tax monies when they have lost track of $21 trillion?
Now, It’s O.K. to cleanse your stomach, stand up straight, then move forward, stay on mission, and correct this massive wrong.
And, by the way, let’s not allow the corporate media disinformation purveyors misdirect our attention off the real story...
The Pentagon's Missing Trillions: What You Need to Know, Corbett Report Extras, 18 Dec 2018.
Dr. Mark Skidmore of Michigan State University joins us to discuss his research with Catherine Austin Fitts into the $21 trillion in unaccounted transactions on the books of the US Department of Defence and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. We discuss what we know and don't know about the subject, the Pentagon's nonsensical and inadequate excuses for the debacle, the new accounting guideline that legally allows every department of the federal government to create fake and altered books for public consumption, the recent failed Pentagon audit, the government's refusal to provide any information about the problem, the failure of congress to pursue the issue, and the failure of the press to report on it.
As President Trump threatens to shut down the federal government over border wall funding, there have been some shake-ups in the White House. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will resign as he faces at least 17 federal investigations into suspected ethics violations. A former fossil fuel industry lobbyist, David Bernhardt, will become the interim interior secretary. Meanwhile, Trump has tapped Mick Mulvaney to become acting chief of staff to replace Gen. John Kelly. Mulvaney already holds two posts in the administration: White House budget director and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And in Texas, a federal court has declared the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate unconstitutional, setting up a likely challenge at the Supreme Court. We are joined by longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. He is author of the new book “To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency, and Why It Isn’t Too Late to Reverse Course.”
“To the Ramparts”: Ralph Nader on How Bush & Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency
A new book by longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential hopeful Ralph Nader links the criminality of the Trump administration to the unchecked power of previous U.S. presidents, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In “To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency, and Why It Isn’t Too Late to Reverse Course,” Nader argues that the U.S. federal government is fundamentally corrupt, warmongering and owned by corporations—but he also issues a call for members of the public to hold their representatives and senators accountable, including by building local commerce watchdog groups across the country and utilizing “citizens summons” to force members of Congress to appear before residents of their districts.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org
Following the Bush/Cheney 9/11 false flag crimes and the 9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress voted your rights away by passing three, Bill of Rights busting laws: (a) the USA PATRIOT Act (Yes, Congress “repealed” the Patriot Act. But it was in name only. Now we must work to revise the Freedom Act.) (b) the Military Commission Act and (c) section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.
This combined with several Supreme Court decisions favoring corporations over humans, and /or giving corporations rights previously only enjoyed by humans with souls, such as allowing corporations and special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections. (Please see: Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission.)
One step toward rectifying these egregious decisions is coalescing in the Green New Deal.
Not only can wrongs be corrected, the process of doing so can be financed through an end run past obstructionist Republicans and their big, dark money corporate sponsors. It’s a move similar to the one that President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) pulled off back in the 30s.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has presented an outstanding way for funding the Green New Deal. The idea worked in the past and it can work now, so says Ellen Brown, JD*, a banking expert who knows a thing or two about banking, the Federal Reserve, finance, and Public Banking. She is the author of 12 books, including best-selling book, Web of Debt, and hundreds of articles.
“With what author and activist Naomi Klein calls “galloping momentum,” the “Green New Deal” promoted by Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appears to be forging a political pathway for solving all of the ills of society and the planet in one fell swoop. Her plan would give a House select committee “a mandate that connects the dots” between energy, transportation, housing, health care, living wages, a jobs guarantee and more. But even to critics on the left, it is merely political theater, because “everyone knows” a program of that scope cannot be funded without a massive redistribution of wealth and slashing of other programs (notably the military), which is not politically feasible.
“That may be the case, but Ocasio-Cortez and the 22 representatives joining her in calling for a select committee also are proposing a novel way to fund the program, one that could actually work. The resolution says funding will come primarily from the federal government, “using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”
“A network of public banks could fund the Green New Deal in the same way President Franklin Roosevelt funded the original New Deal. At a time when the banks were bankrupt, he used the publicly owned Reconstruction Finance Corporation as a public infrastructure bank. The Federal Reserve could also fund any program Congress wanted, if mandated to do so. Congress wrote the Federal Reserve Act and can amend it. Or the Treasury itself could do it, without the need to even change any laws. The Constitution authorizes Congress to “coin money” and “regulate the value thereof,” and that power has been delegated to the Treasury. It could mint a few trillion-dollar platinum coins, put them in its bank account and start writing checks against them. What stops legislators from exercising those constitutional powers is simply that “everyone knows” Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation will result. But will it? Compelling historical precedent shows that this need not be the case.”
*Ellen Brown is the founder of the Public Banking Institute and the author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. She developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In the best-selling Web of Debt (2007, 2012), she turned those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust,” showing how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back.
Harry Belafonte - Man Smart (Woman Smarter) - 1952
Sunrise Movement Members on Capitol Hill... before being jailed.
Sunrise Movement - The Green New Deal
More than 1,000 young people and allies flooded the Capitol Hill hallways and offices (10 Dec 2018) of Democratic representatives to demand that elected officials listen to their youngest constituents — as well as some of the world’s top scientists — and back the bold proposal to shift the US to a zero-carbon energy system by 2050 in order to save the planet from an irreversible climate catastrophe. Thanks to efforts spearheaded by the youth-led Sunrise Movement, the number of Democratic lawmakers now supporting a Select Committee on a Green New deal has now swelled to 23.
Did your mainstream media of choice cover this story?
The great, the one-and-only, Nancy Wilson was born just a short
while ago, in a little south-central Ohio town, Chillicothe, to an iron-worker
and a maid.
I first heard her sing while working for a radio station.
I never
forgot her voice. Nancy Wilson’s music open a life-door for me… one I never knew
existed. Here’s why…
"From coastal cities to America's heartland, Paris to Pittsburgh highlights how Americans are demanding and developing real solutions in the face of climate change. As the weather grows more deadly and destructive across the the nation, they aren't waiting for Washington to act."
I watched the entire show, streaming from the NG website.
It is an excellent “status” report that left me with a rebirth of my faith in our local and state people who are working for the benefit of all, overcoming the stupidity of the Trumpers.
It has long been fact throughout the world that renewable / sustainable energy is the way to go for several reasons, one of which is because millions of home and small business conversion to sustainable energy means good-paying jobs for many, many people.
How do you spell leader? Today, I spell it this way: Rep Nancy Pelosi (D - CA).
In a recent meeting at the White House, Leader Pelosi stood tall in the face of a bellowing, bully-child-man. Yes, this woman knows a thing or two about facing down the tissue-thin monstrosity currently occupying the Peoples’ House. And, she did, too, unlike hundreds of "tough-as-steel-type" male politicians.
“At the outset, she set Trump back on his heels by naming the possible government shutdown “the Trump shutdown,” and sending him into a kind of tailspin. (“Did you say Trump?” he asked incredulously.)”
“Trump tried every sexist tactic in the book in an attempt to diminish the 78-year-old Pelosi: He repeatedly interrupted her, tried to mansplain to Pelosi who is the former, and likely future, Speaker of the House how Congress works, and even talked about her in the third person as if she weren’t there.”
“I was trying to be the mom,” Pelosi said, according to Politico, but “it goes to show you: You get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.”
And, then, this:
“It’s like a manhood thing with him — as if manhood can be associated with him,” Pelosi reportedly said. “This wall thing.”
I'll bet 10 cat's eye marbles that Leader Pelosi doesn't need a wall to prove she's The Leader.
I so want to believe that a first step has finally been taken toward justice for the cold-blooded murder of nearly 2,974 innocents, hundreds of first responders, hundreds of thousands of 9/11 war casualties, and millions of innocents forced into exile due to the 9/11 wars, which were falsely and deceptively engaged by the Bush/Cheney administration.
That first step? Here it is:
NEW YORK, N.Y., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry(part of the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth)has received a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in response to its and 9/11 Family Members' Petitions (https://lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/lc-doj-first-amended-grand-jury-petition/) demanding that he present submitted evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted federal crimes relating to the destruction of WTCs 1, 2 and 7 to a Special Criminal Grand Jury. The letter states: "We have received and reviewed The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, Inc.'s submissions of April 10 and July 30, 2018. We will comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 as they relate to your submissions." -more-
The Grand Jury may help us begin to unpack the truth about 9/11. If so, that truth will set us free.
I’ll bet 10 cat’s eye marbles that you didn’t hear about this in the mainstream media… but, now you have… through the blogosphere.
Here’s more from Downriver USAabout 9/11. And, more from the International Bureau of Forensic Investigationshere.
Finally, I’m still struggling to come to terms with the faith-shattering evilness within those responsible for the 9/11 murders and the resulting holocaust they spawned.
The words of Dr. David Ray Griffin, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus, at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, have helped me deal with these horrible, horrible demons. (Go to :37 in the video... but the whole video is well worth watching.)
David Ray Griffin 2006 "9/11 and Christian Faith" - 2006
I came across some audio from Jim Garrison’s presentation to the Southern California Broadcaster Association (1967) this morning.
As I listened to him speak, I was startled by his prescient comments about the role of media and the rise of Fascism in the USA, as well as his recounting of facts from his findings regarding JFK’s murder.
Garrison’s statements ring clear and true today, despite years of vicious CIA-managed disinformation and media manipulation which effectively weaponized the US media against him and other JFK assassination investigators (See the Operation Mockingbird video clip below and please read Carl Bernstein’s 1977 article, The CIA and the Media.)
Garrison is perhaps best known for bringing charges against Clay Shaw in 1967. Shaw was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was acquitted. Garrison charged that Shaw, along with others including David Ferrie and Guy Banister, were involved in a conspiracy with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the murder of JFK.
Shaw denied any connection with the CIA, but in 1979, Richard Helms, former director of the CIA, testified under oath that Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Service of the CIA. In 1996, the CIA revealed that Shaw had obtained a "five Agency" clearance in 1949.
Garrison was a hero. I hope more like him will come forward today.
Jim Garrison on the JFK Assassination and Fascism - Intro w/ James DiEugenio, 1967
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have created a brilliant solution for reliably and inexpensively storing renewable energy. They call it, Sun in a box.
"MIT engineers have come up with a conceptual design for a system to store renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and deliver that energy back into an electric grid on demand. The system may be designed to power a small city not just when the sun is up or the wind is high, but around the clock."
MIT researchers propose a concept for a renewable storage system, pictured here, that would store solar and wind energy in the form of white-hot liquid silicon, stored in heavily insulated tanks. Credit: Duncan MacGruer
"The new design stores heat generated by excess electricity from solar or wind power in large tanks of white-hot molten silicon, and then converts the light from the glowing metal back into electricity when it's needed. The researchers estimate that such a system would be vastly more affordable than lithium-ion batteries, which have been proposed as a viable, though expensive, method to store renewable energy. They also estimate that the system would cost about half as much as pumped hydroelectric storage—the cheapest form of grid-scale energy storage to date."
"Even if we wanted to run the grid on renewables right now we couldn't, because you'd need fossil-fueled turbines to make up for the fact that the renewable supply cannot be dispatched on demand," says Asegun Henry, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "We're developing a new technology that, if successful, would solve this most important and critical problem in energy and climate change, namely, the storage problem."
One of these Berkley Breathed's Bloom County guys said, "It's time for a break!". And, ya know what? It is. So, go here for some fun.
Then, consider meditatin' on this...
Life's bound to get better!(?) If ya read Breathed's stuff often enough. So, "be kind"... even to the next Michigan, lame duck Republican legislator you bump into.
Interesting scam the lame-duck Republican legislators are trying to pull in Michigan. It’s certainly not, “politics as usual”.
No, since the Democrats won a few top jobs in the state, e.g. governor, attorney general, secretary of state, to name a few, Michigan Rs seem to be smokin’ some bad weed.
They decided to practice a unique brand of Scorched-Earth-Republican-Evil, akin to “sowing the fields with salt and poisoning the wells with putrid bodies”. Each night they must dream of the day when they can return to power and force us all back into serfdom.
I'm looking forward to the time when Lady Justice decides to bring some Pure Michigan justice back home.
Here’s the story, brought to light by Jack Lessenberry…
War on local communities, Jack Lessenberry, Lessenberry Ink, 3 Dec 2018.
"For as long as I can remember, Republicans have campaigned against big government, especially government controls that come from Washington. Instead, they’ve marketed themselves as the party of small government and local control."
"That sounds nice. Most of us would rather have decisions made and money spent by local people we know and trust, rather than big bad bureaucrats in Washington. The trouble, however, is this: Republicans are absolutely in favor of local control … except when they’re not."
