Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Marion – I fear you got caught in the Koch/Egypt discussions, so we missed as oppposed to are ignoring this good and insightful post. I detest Bill Maher and everything he says. He used to be kind of funny, but now he’s just nasty. Might as well be Dennis Miller who is equally despicable but much less present. He is like Jane Hamsher (sp?) at FDL – spouts off at the drop of a hat with WRONG information and nothing but knee jerk crap. He is not brave for speaking out – anyone can do that when you don’t give a damn about facts. I love Lawrence O’Donnell’s line: you’re entitled to your own opinion. You are NOT entitled to your own facts. That’s Maher. There is a subtext I think I have raised before about liberal racism. People such as Maher are bigots but wrap themselves in cloaks of nobility for “speaking the truth” when it’s all a pack of crap based on that bigotry. Maher is one of those people who will kind of accept Black churches in America – but the foundation for that “acceptance” lies in his belief that Black people are too stupid or ignorant to be atheists, so of course we’ll let ’em have this foolishness of faith. You can’t expect anything more of them. That embedded white superiority is more destructive IMHO than some overt racism. I don’t have HBO so don’t even need to make choices, but when he’s on somewhere that I can see him or read what he’s written, I don’t. I read and listened for years, but what he puts out these days is not based on though but on some very ugly emotion, and his veneer of responsible analysis is getting thinner every day. Your critiques keep helping to peel back that false front, and I thank you for it. » Posted By choicelady On February 5, 2011 @ 3:05 pm The Uncloak the Kochs Rally – Words, Images and Video of Democracy in Action Cher – it would be illegal for the WH to expose MY tax filing or yours. The Koch personal returns are OFF LIMITS. However – hah! – joint-stock publicly traded corporations are required to file and POST 10-K forms so that all the world may see them. Now there may be different rules for privately held companies, but I’m fairly sure they are not SO private we could not find them. I’ve tracked Cargill and some other companies. They reveal quite a lot to attract investors, so there is quite a lot we can find out. Have they ever filed bankruptcy on anything? Those records are ALL public! Open the books, boys – your creditors are here… I will defer to the privacy of Mr. and Mrs. Koch. They are real people (we assume) so have the same rights as the rest of us. But the company? No bloody way. However, it is not the job of the White House to “out” anyone. Leave that to the requisite departments – DOJ when their overall criminality is exposed; Commerce when their slimy business dealings are exposed; Treasury when their bank deals and money laundering go sour; EPA when their disgusting pollution violations are exposed; Labor and NLRB when their OSHA and other standards are exposed, and on and on and on. When they create phony non-profits, that’s when they get VERY risky; non-profits have high reporting standards. There are forms called 990s that have to be filed, and if they have created a 501-c-3 which is TAX EXEMPT with tax-deductible donations BUT they have spent more than 5% of that on POLITICAL action, they are in deep doo-doo. They have to have a 501-c-4 which is tax exempt BUT the donations are not deductible. Did any of their astro-turf creations violate the law? Did they incorporate properly? Bet we could learn a lot here. Even if what they did is according to Hoyle, they still have tons of paperwork to file that includes ALL their sources of income for that entity. Is it a PAC – even MORE disclosure. So yeah – we can find out quite a bit. I have only one remaining question – why is young Mrs. Koch married to such a geezer? Oh. Wait. Silly me. Of course! It’s his warmth and charm. Should have known. » Posted By choicelady On February 2, 2011 @ 9:33 pm As far as CA goes, Fair Political Practices Commission head, Dan Schnur, took the crack in “Citizens United” that allowed states to demand full accountability. Dan, a long-time GOP ally, is also, however odd this may seem, a dedicated reformer on behalf of democracy. He seized the opening and has insisted that each and every campaign donation and paid-for advertisement run in any state political race HAD to declare all donors – not straws and “Americans For” types of phony committees – but REAL people. Hardly anyone knows this yet – even though he announced it at the November meeting of the Sacramento Press Club. Somehow most of the reporters there did not find that interesting. I was also there. I know Dan. I found it BLOODY BRILLIANT!!! I do not believe the Kochs actually know it yet. I once saw a terrific cartoon in the SF Examiner. An ostrich had its head buried in the sand. Next to it was a crouching tiger saying, “I seeeeeee you!” Well, Koch Brothers – we seeeeeee you! » Posted By choicelady On February 2, 2011 @ 9:17 pm Next time, Sue – you and I will drive together. I couldn’t leave early enough this time and had to be back mid-day MOnday, but NEXT time…!!!! What was so energizing about this rally (and I think it was closer to 2000 people at its peak) was the age diversity. Lots of younger people, lots of “Vietnam reruns” such as I. That was far less true in the 60s, though I do remember marching with a woman in her 70s even then. What will it take to get people off their computer chairs and out to take action? Rallies and marches definitely – but demanding from their elected officials accountability to us? Another older activist has a button I have pinned to my office wall: Don’t Whine! Organize! It’s my mantra. Those who prefer to gripe but do nothing are my biggest fear. That is how we lose big time. I don’t know where the activism went. It exists in pockets but not as it did forty years ago. However, this time we have more sense (I think) than we did in the 60s and 70s about excluding people such as blue collar folks who don’t fit our tests of purity on every issue. Anyone who does not understand that even white blue collar workers are in the same boat with the rest of us has really missed the point. It’s all of us or it’s none of us. I hope Sunday was the start, not the end. I would LOVE to wipe that bored indifference off Ms. Koch’s face. She is an American who cares nothing for her nation and its people, only for what it channels into her coffers. I would recommend everyone dig up a copy of psychologist Robert Coles’ great book, “Children of Privilege” – the rich folks’ creation of a class of kids who know nothing of the rest of us and thus care nothing about the rest of us. Coles argues that unlike our liberal analysis that these folks act out of a sense of inferiority, they in fact act from an embedded sense of superiority they’ve been taught from birth. That cannot be so easily cracked. Even some conservatives can be taught compassion and justice as beginning points for political discussions. Not everything can or must be reduced to commodities and acquisition. Democracy, if it’s to matter and be sustained, has to begin with equality and proceed on from there. If we don’t believe in that, then we do not value democracy at all, and that is the ruination of America. » Posted By choicelady On February 2, 2011 @ 7:23 am LIVE BLOG – Uncloaking The Kochs – 1-30-2011 Hi Sue and Kalima – it was entirely purposeful. Code Pink and another group I never quite identified, had trained to BE arrested as non-violent civil disobedience. They walked onto the property into the lines of sheriffs and police in order to GET arrested. We all pitched in $$$ for bail, but they, unlike Operation Rescue, took great pains to do no harm to the police and did not lie down forcing the cops to pick them up and risking the backs of the police in question. It was very KIND in its message – I WILL trespass on your sanctum. I WILL NOT do harm along the way. I was very touched by it all. I know the old lefties (I’m one of them) would not have been so pacific, but it did seem appropriate – a “pick your fights” kind of thing. Still and all – going to jail is never fun. You cannot be totally certain that the law, rather than some irate judge’s personal peeve, will prevail. It takes guts to be arrested, I don’t care what. I imagine – hope – they got out on OR, but we helped throw money into the bail kitty just in case. Tip of the iceberg here – this was a large rally against the Tea Party funders, and I bet they did not quite know what hit them. They are sooooo comfy there under their rock. Sunshine is NEVER welcome in those quarters! Cher – I’m IN one of the videos? Well, good luck to ya figuring out who’s who!. One hint – I am NOT the bear – nor is Cher nor AdLib. The bear was very unnerving because it was so realistic and the bear suit wearer NEVER broke character even when, for about an hour, it got quite warm. It was quite impressive and rather moving in a way most sorts of costumes are not. Overall, a very good day for democracy. » Posted By choicelady On January 31, 2011 @ 4:57 pm WATCH LIVE VIDEO – Uncloak The Kochs Rally Today – 11 am – 4 pm PST Yes bito – I finally saw a photo of the BACK of the spa resort, and I guess that’s their pool. We were on the street side, much less impressive I must say. The lines of folks who came out of the conference to watch us picketing them were pretty unimpressive, although there were a few (fairly overweight) older men who might have been “somebody”. Hard to tell. We never saw Cantor and the other Rich and Famous among the scattering of younger men and women, the sycophants of the day. I guess I saw Breitbart and did not know it was he. Too bad. LOL!!! If he was the only skater, I chalked him up as a part of the GLBT crowd!!! Bet that would have had his knickers in a twist!!! The RWers always say they have “inside information” about violence, etc., but it’s because they dream it up, so of COURSE it’s “inside” because it did not come from outside. Have to give him points for creative lying I guess. He must be sorely disappointed that nothing violent at ALL occurred. It wasn’t MOSTLY peaceful. It was ENTIRELY peaceful. » Posted By choicelady On January 31, 2011 @ 5:23 pm NO – nothing quite that sybaritic! We were at a lovely but vastly more middle-of-the-road Mexican restaurant. We are but modest people, after all. Food was VERY good though, I must say. And by the time we left the rally, it was getting freaking COLD. No lounging by the still waters. Sorry! » Posted By choicelady On January 31, 2011 @ 4:41 pm Hi! Choicelady was there, too – and I dispute the numbers! We KNOW there were 1500 people on the various buses, so add in the rest of us who drove and flew in, it had to be at least 2000, not 1000. Then add in local folks, and… The panel was really solid, the rally was, well, spectacular. Why? We were so damned CIVILIZED, unlike the Kochs. There were flower gardens on either side of the driveway, manned (all male so this is appropriate terminology) by some local sheriffs and police. They smiled (they’d have laughed, but it’s not allowed) as we all cautioned one another, “Oh! Don’t step on the flower!” And we did not. Not property values, values for how pretty nature – even cultivated nature – was. Not one flower got squished. Hats off to the several dozen utterly non-violent folks doing civil disobedience. They took good care of the police – they walked up, turned around, put their hands behind them, got busted with NO hardship for the cops. Yeah – the observers from the retreat laughed at us. Don’t they know that we are Americans and that we did this to liberate THEM as well as ourselves? The price that is paid for total control lies in what is happening in Egypt. The cost to the oppressor is HUGE – it takes a powerful lot of money to keep yourself on top. It means paying for protection, and losing the support of all the people. In all of history, no autocracy has ever survived. Don’t these folks get it? We know if Marie Antoniette had been there (and who’s to say she wasn’t, in modern garb) she’d have dismissed the folks with the “let them eat cake” lingo. The cluelessness of the temporary occupants of the top. But we’re the people, and we say “NO!” to their lies and scrabbling to have it all. Not just 90% – ALL. Back in the days of feudalism, a time that is not held in high esteem for it’s fairness, there were nonetheless checks on the degree to which lords could exploit their serfs. Why? If the serfs produced the food and bounty by which the Lord survived, there was only so much the Lord could extract, only so much oppression he could inflict, before he started cannibalizing his own sources of bounty. There is always a limit, no matter what the Kochs think. The big question – and only one rather strange woman asked it – is how do the Kochs tie in with the Dominionists of “The Family”. The woman had a sign equating the two: Kochs = Dominionists. I wanted to ask her how she knew, but I never got the chance. And she was holding a rubber chicken which kinda put me off with its oddness. But yes – are they part of “The Family”? I would not be surprised if they were and are.Then they are pseudo-Christians, who actually don’t believe in anything, who use religion to justify their domination. How pathetic. And how scary. What got accomplished? The end of secrecy. Never again will these new feudal Lords have their meetings without somone “outing” them and their paid-for political running dog lackeys. We KNOW there were federal people there – we saw the federal marshalls who provide protection for only federal folks. But unlike the real feudal lords, the Kochs have not yet figured out that you cannot dominate the serfs forever. They will either stop producing or will revolt. I think yesterday was the beginning of the latter. The Kochs had better re-think their roles here. The whole world is looking at their respective oppressors and saying, loudly and clearly – NO MORE! When the people talk, the whole world listens. WE started the push back yesterday. Let’s keep the momentum for truth alive! » Posted By choicelady On January 31, 2011 @ 4:36 pm Mubarak: Half sunk, a shattered visage lies Khirad – our understanding of what is happening would have been much less informed without all you’ve done for us. This victory is in no small part yours thanks to the amazing information and analysis you’ve offered us in the US and elsewhere. Thank you for being so present for all of us. » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 10:44 am Khirad – you’re been amazing. We all have learend SO MUCH from you with your guidance through the maze. I heard on Anderson Cooper (who has become a true believer in democracy and not a sap sucking “objective” journalist – being smacked around will do that for one) that today begins the REAL test – who runs the Military? OK – all new people, Khirad, whoever can answer this: I have some tiny “inside information” that the US Dominionist pseudo-Christians are funding Mubarak, Suleiman, and the thugs. Maybe now moving into the military. NO smoking guns, but this desperately needs to be investigated. WHOM SHOULD I TELL??????? Does anyone have insight into groups that would ACT on this information, not just dither over it? It is illegal for two reasons – it’s been illegal for 200 years under the Logan Act (no one’s ever been prosecuted) to have private acts of foreign policy, especially those that are inimical to the US’s official policy. Second – it’s a massive abuse of these “religious” groups’ non-proft tax exempt status to commit political acts using tax deductible dollars. Who will actually investigate this???? Any suggestions? Remember – these Christian Zionists act to defend Israel, not for its own sake but to take it over and use it to fulfill Biblical prophecy (they made up) on the End Times. Problem is – too many Jewish groups turn a blind eye because they want the support. Right there it rules out a number of human rights groups. So HELP!!! » Posted By choicelady On February 7, 2011 @ 7:35 pm I can no longer find it online, but there was an incredibly sarcastic ditty that came out after the revelations about Abu Ghraib that conveyed the utterly disgusting, “Oops, sorry” of US officials. It was done in Brit music hall style featuring a certifiable upper class twit feigning apology. Well – that smacks of this “sorry”! Apparently we’ve Westernized Egyptian officials waaaaay more than we’d realized. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 6:38 pm bito – as long as he’s beloved INSIDE the RW, he’s still dangerous. They ALL are. OK – I’m descending into true paranoia here. Time to refocus! » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:29 pm Oh Khirad – that is too wonderful!!!! Best summation of events ever!!! Thank you – I am horrified I’d forgotten the role Fawn had in all this. I remember on Nov. 22, 1963 asking “is this the end of America?” It sort of was. Out of that tragedy and the tragedy of Vietnam we should have had a far, far better and less corrupt nation. Instead it got worse. First hope I’ve had is for this administration – and now I fear for it. Sarah is pronouncing the Dominionist dicta against Obama for – letting Egypt be Egyptian. What will she and her ilk be willing to do to get control again? If they don’t like the democracy, as I suspect they hated JFK’s decision to pull out of Vietnam, what will they DO? And will we see Egypt as the next Chile if they “disapprove” of its path to democracy? Scary, scary people. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:28 pm KB – it’s great to have YOU here. You remember a LOT from those days for someone who was in early puberty then – that notorious period when youth basically pay NO attention to anything but themselves! Says quite a lot of good stuff about you!!! » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:20 pm Yup – he justified the disparities of wealth, the racism, and the class warfare of rich against the poor that we now have. Genial Uncle Ronnie was ruthless and power hungry. It went from bad to worse with GHW (Willie Horton) and W (everything). Slide in Newt and the 1990s congressional debacle, and there you have the REAL Reagan legacy – forward to the past. Welcome to the 1890s. Grrrrrr. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:19 pm I believe, I believe!!!! » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:17 pm I know some of the religious right has been trying to convert, and if that doesn’t work, co-opt, many Muslims. As Jeff Sharlet wrote in his book, “The Family” these extremists will prop up any tyrant including Muslims so long as they defer TO the Family in its quest for power. Then the money flows to the tyrant. Since they have supported some of the worst of the worst, it’s no stretch to think they support Mubarak. The end game is always to keep power for the Right (including neo-cons) and to secure Israel to fulfill End Times prophecy. Their wretched Biblicalisms maintain that “Christians” must be nice to Jews for seven years to obtain Israel and thus the Temple. Then when Armageddon comes, Jews who have converted and accepted Christ will survive, the rest – oh, well… I tell my Jewish friends that after 2000 years of pogroms and the Holocaust, having Christians “be nice” must be a comfort – so long as you don’t look too hard at why. Muslims are different – they are to be converted or eradicated. No middle ground. They are “Babylon” (Iraq) and without merit even as a base for a land grab. It’s those Muslims in control of resources or who can prop up Israel that they want to dominated. Hence – Dominionists is the only term for them. Sarah is part of that rat pack along with many others who, I fervently believe, are channeling money to Mubarak and the forces of oppression. What Evangelical Christians are there would make me suspicious. I’m not sure there is an Evangelical presence that is not pernicious. Don’t know that for sure, but it’s my deepest suspicion. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 3:15 pm Thank, KB. You don’t know me well yet. I lived some of this – and that’s not to say just that I’m OLD (I refuse to admit it) but that there were consequences in violence and loss of friends and acquaintances since 1976 that have made me have to “pay attention”. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 2:40 pm KB – can’t reply to your last in this link, so here goes. At the time Ronnie ran for Prez if he had Alzheimer’s, it was very early stage. He had enough moxie to manipulate people on his own – he was more in charge than W. – sad to say. I think his deterioration came toward the end of the first term, but a couple of people who were INSIDE the White House in the early days were not thinking he was impaired at all. He was ignorant and did not mind staying that way, but he was clear and decisive. He was also, during the 1980 campaign, fully ready to move far, far right to get the new evangelical surge and ride it to power. How he could NOT have been part of the planning is beyond me. Had this been second term, well, perhaps. Not in ’80. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 2:37 pm You remember that well, KB. That’s all he got. I know stories about Ollie that make him so clearly unfit for service. But I have enough sense to keep them to myself. Not the sand screen story though – that’s sort of public if not widely known. He’s beyond horrible. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 2:34 pm Too many of us want to believe the “genial uncle Ronnie” story rather than, once again after Watergate, prove that corruption is the name of the conservative game. Americans increasingly turn to magical thinking and fairy tales. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 2:32 pm Patsy – now THAT’s commie! Next you’ll be promoting Jesus sandals, and you KNOW where that leads – SOCIAL JUSTICE!!!! » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 2:30 pm KB – your questions are fine – I think events are moving too fast and things sometimes too opaque for any of us, even Khirad, to give a definition. I have been reading your posts with real interest since your questions mirror some of mine. I’m sorry you feel left out – I think HISTORY is leaving all of us out! I found the best thing I can do is follow the links that Khirad, kes, and others have posted. Everyone and everything is moving too fast for us who are thousands of miles away to understand without cathcing up via the links. My head’s in a whirl, too, and I’m working here in Sacramento with the Egyptian community. What’s appalling to me is my own ignorance. Yikes. And I’m not getting a WHOLE lot smarter without the links. You are MORE than welcome here and much appreciated for your direct and open inquiry. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 10:45 am I think what we have is a dangerous division between this administration and the neo-con okus Dominionist Right. I think Obama will honor whatever choices the Egyptians make – and that will in turn infuriate the imperialists. THAT is precisely what happened when JFK decided to get out of Vietnam – and you can see how well THAT worked out. I’ve never been more scared. What we did not know then, we do know now. I see the players, their links to rogue CIA, and remnants of the cold warriors in military, state department, etc. We need a bastion of protection supporting the president in support of democracy – we don’t have it. What will happen is deeply worrisome. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 10:41 am Allow me, conspiracy theorist without peer, to say that Reagan’s “secret plan to free the hostages” that morphed into the Iran Contra scandal, may in fact have been a treasonous deal with Iran to discredit Carter. I have heard people IN the White House discuss the deal as a means to prevent an ‘October surprise’ by Carter’s obtaining release of the hostages and thereby securing Reagan’s election. And remember the rescue attempt? The helicopters crashed due to the absence of sand screens on the engines. Who was in charge of prepping those copters? Oliver North, that’s who. Call me crazy (many have) I will never EVER be without doubts about all this and the very real possibilities that Reagan was the most vicious traitor we’ve seen in centuries. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 10:37 am OK – I seriously DOUBT these are evangelical Christians. More likely Coptic Christians who are not the same. The Evangelicals, such as they exist, are on the “other side”. » Posted By choicelady On February 6, 2011 @ 10:33 am Beck is wedded to the “Caliphate”. I gather maybe Osama bin Laden said creating that was his goal, but what underlies Beck’s obsession is good, old American insistence that all versions of (fill in the blank) are EXACTLY the same. So as Osama goes, so go ALL Muslims/Arabs/Mid-East people. The Domino Theory Redux!!!! I bet Beck thinks we “won” something in Vietnam, too. Recycled shopworn political theory tends to give me heartburn. What about you? » Posted By choicelady On February 5, 2011 @ 7:09 pm That made more sense than does Beck! » Posted By choicelady On February 5, 2011 @ 3:07 pm Great source – I’ve joined. The more information we get from their own perspective, the better. » Posted By choicelady On February 5, 2011 @ 2:53 pm Probably that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken over New York. Somebody ought to tell that to Anthony Weiner… » Posted By choicelady On February 5, 2011 @ 2:48 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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