Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Obama 41% Approval Rating Proof Of The Public’s Lack Of Basic Current Events Knowledge There have been other madnesses in other times but in this case – it is a madness planned for and financed by the elite, the wealthy, the powerful seeking to undermine any progressive initiative with the unwitting collaboration of an uninformed and disconnected electorate buying into a false narrative. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 11:04 pm Thank you. Of equal interest to me is that the same list provokes those on the far left to label Obama as weak, a sellout, a trojan horse….this is the same crowd that having pushed him into office in 2008, then walked away in disgust because he wasn’t moving fast enough or making changes deep enough in 2010 leaving him with a totally unmanageable Congress. The global shift to conservative governments is not coincidental. Well planned, well financed. A key is an ignorant and unconnected electorate. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 10:58 pm I am working with a statistician now on that point precisely. If his info checks out then the poll is an example of cooking the books in the worst sort of way…..more coming. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 2:15 pm No obligation to tell the truth and no intention of doing so… Propaganda machine: well paid and proud. That case was in Florida and it is the one the Fox lawyers trot out when they are threatened with a lawsuit for their lies… So, stillbarbi ???? was I a fan? were you a fan of mine??? Not that it matters since here at the Planet we are committed to be fans of all the Planeteers! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 12:17 pm And I have been sent some details that I want to add to this post regarding the structure of the poll. It is a powerful case for the bias built into the sample. SO, stay tuned. Please tell your mom that a lot of the emoprog stuff exists for the same reason that right wingers foam at the mouth- it drives more traffic to their sites. AND that is all about money and power. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 12:13 pm Howdy….who were you at HP? Whoever, I am happy to see you here at the Planet. Let’s see where this discussion goes. We have had a lot of hot and heavy ones in the last several days. Glad you joined us. In reply to your comment….William Randolph Hearst who headed the Tribune Corporation in the 19th Century said that stories are chosen and told to attract readers. To do that he advocated sensationalism, tabloid news reporting captured in his famous quote: “If it bleeds, it leads.” and “For a newspaper man the only good news IS bad news.” The news media exists because it makes money and money is made by attracting readers, viewers, listeners and commenters. SO….they do what attracts and that often means that balanced truth telling suffers. Here is a case in point. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 10:43 am Poems, Aphorisms and Injustices KT- ah, found it. It was a recent post. I must have been wrapped up in the funereal rites for HP when this came up as I did not reply to it AND your selection contains a poem that I find extraordinary.. The 2nd Coming…This masterpiece uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and the second coming allegorically to describe the atmosphere of post-war I Europe. The closing phrase: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” presage the coming horror of the great depression, the failure of all established government, fascism, the holocaust, the cold war etc. The center did not hold and when it did not all was spun away from that center. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 26, 2014 @ 7:13 pm Lobbying Reform Sunlight is advocating for the Lobbyist Disclosure Enhancement Act. Introduced in June by Rep. Mike Quigley, this legislation would significantly increase public knowledge of influence wielding in Washington. The legislation would require lobbyists to disclose the names of covered executive branch officials or Members of Congress lobbied (or the name of the employer if the lobbyist meets with staff), the dates of the meetings, and the issues discussed. The bill would also close a loophole in who needs to report – a loophole which currently allows some of the most powerful players in Washington to engage in lobbying activities with no disclosure. The bill also significantly speeds disclosure of new registrations, reduces delays in reporting of lobbyists’ contributions, and strengthens enforcement mechanisms. Sunlight is also advocating for legislators to change lobbying rules so that the public has real-time, online information about who is influencing policy decisions on Capitol Hill. Please read and comment on Sunlight’s legislative proposal, The Real-Time Online Lobbying Disclosure Act on PublicMarkup.org. We’d love to have your thoughts and input during this process. http://sunlightfoundation.com/policy/lobbying/ » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 3:01 pm Scott Brown’s Lack of Moral Imagination
You and Rachel: Great Minds thinking alike! You build a strong case for disqualifying him from his race….well…anywhere…. Just like Rachel does. Great summation: Scott Brown, like SO many Republicans today, is lacking the basic moral imagination needed to understand those problems of his constituents he didn’t go through personally. That’s why you cannot possibly believe that he will be able to REPRESENT the needs of the majority of the people living in his state – or whatever state he decides to go to in order to run for office. It’s also why progressives, moderates and conservatives in this country should work very hard to prevent him from being elected in November. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 19, 2014 @ 3:09 pm “At Last!”: How HP Continues to Cultivate Cynicism I could have jumped all the way up to here and gotten back most of the box…. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 2:22 pm You wrote: “Murph, there was an article written that Australia was the “Happiest Country”. Well the responses from those LIVING here states quite the contrary, sort of on the order of “you’re joking, right?” They echo what has been my experience on the whole. This thread is now too narrow to list the pages of comments that I have already reduced by 50%! So I will comment in TO/OT and you’ll see my drift. Yes, Ireland is in a spot of bother but all the people we know and love there are doing quite well, are happy and enjoy their travels all over. Sorry that Dublin wasn’t your cup of tea. It’s not ours either, but the comraderie and support is wonderful.” YOU KNOW….that might make a good article/post here. We have a handful of Aussie on the Planet and I would be interested in the Happiet Country article’s argument and the responses it provoked. Well, friends make deserts islands, oases. Got your point. P.S. The way you deal with narrow threads is to jump up a couple of levels and do what I did here. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 2:22 pm Hate Oz. Really. Few do. I have not been there. I have been told that I would find new Zealand, especially ChristChurch much more to my liking. You have traveled far and long and learned much. Love SF but SOOOOOOOOO expensive now, more than NYC which is saying someting. I do not like Dublin- perhaps I have not given it a chance. Irish countryside is nice. Ireland is having a rough time of it now that EU boom went bust, yes? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 6:14 am Telephone lineman How are these connected? Were you a certified teacher (to be in a high school admin)? What kind of school? What did your job entail. I taught in high school for 13 years. We had one Dean of Students who was a tyrant, ruled by fear, paddle and all. The next was a Socratic Logician, ruled by outwitting the crowd. Both were effective. Both were liked by some students and disliked by others. I suspect this related to the parenting styles in their homes. This was late 60’s and into the 70’s, very conservative town. I loved my subject and those who love their subjects often migrate to higher ed but I also loved teaching so I went to a university where teaching was really emphasized and a key to promotion. I fell into farming after my post retirement nest egg emploded in 2008. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 6:10 am Yep. I am a “gentleman famrer” i.e. I sell organically raised produce to small local markets and restaurants- mushrooms, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, peppers, eggplant and berries. I raise the mushrooms in an enclosed, photo paper dark out large shed. The rest are in a dozen enclosed gardens – 15000 square feet worth. I have been doing this since 2009. What about your horse farm? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 4:16 am In the land of Oz….ah hah! » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 3:34 am What in the heck are you doing up so early (or is it early where you are)? In my world it is 5 AM but I am a farmer so that is my excuse. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 3:06 am Thank you. In my experience, we on the left can be every bit as unreasonable and irrational as those on the right I have several friends who either did not vote in 2010 or voted for a Republican or an alternative third party candidate “to send a message.” I never tire of reminding them that the message they sent is “We are stupid.” » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 3:05 am Interesting comment- quite comprehensive Let me begin with the function of headlines- to draw in readers. HP headlining has long been splashy, antagonistic, and sensational in its headlining. When I was active there I often commented on its tendency to accentuate the negative because as William Randolph Hearst said in the 19th century (and what remains true today) “if it bleeds, it leads”- a reference to his editorial policy that front page, top of the fold headlines and stories got the most attention if they were nasty, violent, negative. This style, often referred to as “tabloid”, has expanded to include that which is sexy, NSFW, and celebrating celebrity status. Now, having said that, I also regard HP headlining as whiny and complaining especially in regard to liberal/progressive priorities. In that world Obama has not done enough, moved fast enough, taken on the enemies of liberal causes enough etc. This is the sentiment that retarded progressive/liberal turnout in 2010 and nearly killed Obama’s entire administration. I tire of the mantra that “Obama has not done enough to keep his promises”….when liberals gave him TWO WHOLE YEARS, to get it all done in and then when he could not walk on water, turned their backs on him. Thus, we got a GOP House, GOP governors and state legislatures, all in a Census year which ensure an uphill climb in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Liberals and Progressives did not do enough. SO, Libs and Progs (yeah, you know who I am talking to) quite yer bitchin and get your asses in gear OR you will have a GOP Senate, an Obama impeachment trial and even less getting done in DC. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 12:53 am Carter was a response to the Nixon/Ford scandals and the white knight’s armor was soon so tarnished we would not let him lead us for another 4 years. I think we would have been better off with Ford anyway. Carter was largely a fraud- sorry, but he was, media created out of anger at Ford for the pardon. In terms of what I focused on- and what you led me to- the key for me is the decision by Big Money in this country, and I would argue globally, to try to buy up government. This is a 90’s phenomenon and it continues to play out. Big Money’s strategy involves a total war set of tactic and with their money they control the fate of most of those elected. The fact is that the candidate with the most money wins 94 percent of the time- per Pew. Given that, those who give the most money control the message of the candidates and their future votes. When the very rich are cynical, self aggrandizing, and self righteously selfish, then that become the tenor of the party they sponsor/control. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 17, 2014 @ 3:52 am Welcome to the Planet….glad you joined us. Excellent first contribution. Fascinating how you wove all of these threads together to make a point- not one of the ones you stated (although they were excellent)- the point I got out of this was that bipartisanship, cooperation between parties, leadership that was interested in governing as in winning elections did at one time exist in U.S. politics and its existence was robust one. The current environment- which came to the fore first in the years of Clinton Impeachment and the Contract with American- has so poisoned the waters of inter-party cooperation for Republicans that anyone daring to drink from them on the GOP side dies an elector death. In such an environment no Ike or Nixon could arise……a warning of a dire future and the necessity of one party rule. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 16, 2014 @ 6:41 pm Understanding How the Military Works And now that it is on my radar…I am seeing references to this everywhere. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:50 pm Blind trusts are a key to “plausible deniability”- it provides a way for those who very much benefit from the decisions they make to pretend that such a happy set of circumstances was unintended. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:48 pm Read your Bilderberg piece- intriguing…you really keep your ear to the ground… » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:44 pm Your thoughts about his exploration of Buddhism and his hopes for a role in Afghanstan make sense. I am not condemning him although walking away from a guard post endangers many more than just you, but I still think his decision to reenlist was a faulty one. Recall that he was in the coast guard and was separated from service for undisclosed adjustment issues. But by the time he wanted to give the military a go again we were so desperately short of recruits that nearly anyone would do. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:41 pm I am such a mild mannered wimp…. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:34 pm I have set up as one of the great “what if’s” – a decision not to overthrow the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and his cabinet on 19 August 1953…many of the seeds of the current destruction in the middle east would not have found fertile soil » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:33 pm Religious leaders in Islam have often stood apart from the “state” for which such borders are of paramount importance. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:31 pm M16- got it…. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:29 pm Very well put together. I see your reference to MI16- I will note that for the future. What I like is how you manage to draw a line across several administrations showing how they all enter into a worldview that traps them and limits responses. One of the intriguing “what ifs” of the history of the mideast is the what if Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and his cabinet had not been overthrown on 19 August 1953. Many of the most destructive seeds of our current hot mess would likely have never found fertile ground. what Jim Carter never understood was that harboring the Shah was seen as the bookend with the removal of Mosaddegh on one end and the asylum of the Shah on the other with a long history of U.S. sponsored repression in between. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:25 pm I watched Joe Scarborough and Chuck Todd today focus like lasers on what the WSJ ABC Poll finding that the Pres. only had 41 percent support and that most did not think he could govern any longer. They acted as if those who responded to the poll actually, as a whole, understood what they were saying and had any claim to knowing of what they spoke. Our public is generally ignorant of of how the government works. MOST of what the poll cited as Obama failures are, in fact, Congressional (ie GOP) failures. Ignorance is not bliss. It is a blight. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On June 18, 2014 @ 8:08 pmComments Posted By MurphTheSurf3
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