Xmas Pix

A Little Rational Thinking

...goes a long way.  From Rolling Stone:

After months of escalating protests and grassroots organizing in response to the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, police reformers have issued many demands. The moderates in this debate typically qualify their rhetoric with "We all know we need police, but..." It's a familiar refrain to those of us who've spent years in the streets and the barrios organizing around police violence, only to be confronted by officers who snarl, "But who'll help you if you get robbed?" We can put a man on the moon, but we're still lacking creativity down here on Earth.

But police are not a permanent fixture in society. While law enforcers have existed in one form or another for centuries, the modern police have their roots in the relatively recent rise of modern property relations 200 years ago, and the "disorderly conduct" of the urban poor. Like every structure we've known all our lives, it seems that the policing paradigm is inescapable and everlasting, and the only thing keeping us from the precipice of a dystopic Wild West scenario. It's not.

I have no plans to stop bitching about things - when I think something's wrong, I'm gonna bitch about it.  But while it's really lotsa fun to unleash a good cathartic-feeling tirade, eventually, there's no point in it if all I ever do is bitch about it.  So here's the thing: we've gotta come up with alternatives.

We have a problem with violence.  Recognize and deal effectively with that problem, and we're a big step closer to being able to solve some of the other problems that grow out of our problem with violence.

Right now, we look a lot like the townsfolk in the old westerns who hire a gunslinger to deal with (insert local bad guy here), but then realize they've only substituted one bully for another.

Violence in service of politics is at the heart of what we're supposed to be the exception to.

Let's try something else.

Like It's Christmas

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town --Ramsey Lewis Trio





Please Come Home For Christmas --Charles Brown





Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis --Tom Waits




The Christmas Song --Siatigas





Christmas In The Room --Sufjan Stevens





All I Want For Christmas Is You --Mariah Carey and Jimmy Fallon et al





O Holy Night --Dublin Gospel Choir





Christmas Tears (cover) --Eric Clapton





Someday At Christmas --Jack Johnson

Deadly Rhetoric

Via Mock Paper Scissors:

(tengrain asks for citations to back up the claims of "propaganda", but of course, "conservatives" just get really upset when you press for things like evidence, so yeah - good luck widdat)

“We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police. The protests are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don’t lead to violence, a lot of them lead to violence, all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad, the police are racist. That is completely wrong.” --Mr 9/11, Rudy Giuliani

But even if I grant the assertion of "4 months of propaganda", how could that come anywhere close to the years of toxic anti-government slagging coming from the Radical Right?

"Government's not the solution, government's the problem."

"...drown it in a bathtub."

and on

and on

and on

And that's nuthin' compared with the deafening silence coming from the Ammosexuals at the moment.

Wanna talk about all those cuts in funding for Mental Health now?

Then this from TMZ:

I'm getting one of my lousy feelings that the Press Poodles will spend most of their time and energy spinning this into another episode of "Both Sides".  They'll report the controversy as if all things are equal, and we'll end up staying paralyzed in the middle.

Big fuckin' problems.  But the really big one boils down to this:  We can't go on being further and further isolated from our government when we were set up to be self-governing.  It astounds me to think of how much we bitch about "nobody taking responsibility for anything" when we sit on our thumbs and do nothing but bitch about how shitty everything is.

The Trouble With Bryan

Bryan Fischer (affectionately dubbed Reverend Fishsticks at Mock Paper Scissors), has decided that the homosexual agenda represents the greatest single threat to religious liberty we have ever seen in the history of our existence as a nation."

As usual, the "conservative" has shown some true colors here.  It's not a conservative value to deny people their rights.  Which should make it really clear that Bryan Fisher is as radical as they come.

Forget the usual bullshit about stirring up fear of the big bad homos - that shit does keep working surprisingly well on an awful lotta rubes, but by now shouldn't it be about as frightening as the Haunted House that the PTA puts on at the local middle school that's the same fucking thing every fucking year?

It's a pretty simple premise - the best way for me to ensure my own right's is by ensuring everybody else's rights.  

As we progress a little further towards Equal Rights, the only thing Bryan Fisher "loses" is what he believes (in his carbon-black little heart) to be his birthright as a white middle-class Christian American; his anointment by the almighty to have dominion over everything; to dictate to us what his imaginary friend tells him we must do to please him.  I can't think of anything more arrogantly and quaintly out-of-step with everything we've learned about self government over the last 2 1/2 centuries.

Entitlement much, muthuhfuckuh?

Stop This Shit Right Now

Two cops are dead because we don't do the Rational Thinking thing much any more.

And this doesn't help:

“Unfortunately, I don’t believe anyone connected to law enforcement is surprised this happened,” said Gary McLhinney, a former Baltimore police union president and former chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority police, who is now a labor negotiator for police unions. “Political rhetoric and lies have consequences. When our leaders make statements that encourage lawlessness and demean an entire profession, this is the result.”

First, I have to indulge myself with a tiny bit of Media Criticism - what “Political rhetoric and lies..." are we referring to here, Gary?  Wingnut Media have tried hard to paint Obama and Holder as "anti-cop" because they've been critical of the way some departments have seen fit to fund themselves by operating a shakedown racket primarily aimed at "the black community", but there's nothing in the WaPo story to indicate where that bit came from.  So it falls outa this guy's yap and just sits there - no challenge; no followup; no context.  Nuthin'.

Anyway, let the record show that "The Legion of Race Baiters" have all, or pretty much all, stepped up and condemned the cop killer in no uncertain terms. 

(source = Politico)

Obama: “I unconditionally condemn today’s murder of two police officers in New York City,” the president said in a statement released just after midnight on Sunday morning. “Two brave men won’t be going home to their loved ones tonight, and for that, there is no justification.  The officers who serve and protect our communities risk their own safety for ours every single day — and they deserve our respect and gratitude every single day. I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal — prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen.”

Holder: (labeled the killings an) “assassination” and “an unspeakable act of barbarism.”

He said the attack underscores the dangers police officers face each day in their jobs and that “we must not forget this as we discuss the events of the recent past.”

Holder called for communities and their police departments to forge closer bonds, “so that public safety is not a cause that is served by a courageous few, but a promise that’s fulfilled by police officials and citizens working side by side.”

Al Sharpton: “Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases,” the statement said. “We have stressed at every rally and march that anyone engaged in any violence is an enemy to the pursuit of justice for Eric Garner and Michael Brown… The Garner family and I have always stressed that we do not believe that all police are bad, in fact we have stressed that most police are not bad.”

But none of that matters anymore.  The Authoritarians have a coupla more very timely and  convenient martyrs now.  We've already begun seeing what looks like a push on social media to turn every cop into a saintly figure with the purest of intentions faced with the lawless brutality of the unwashed hordes of the ghetto blah blah über alles blah.

The use of violence by an authoritarian government is intended to elicit a violent response from the governed in order for the government to gain sufficient rationale to use violence against the governed.  

And round and round we go.  Thanks for playing.

We're supposed to have set ourselves up to be the exception, because we were supposed to have recognized that we deserve better than to be perpetually stuck in the kind of cycle of violence that had been going on for a thousand centuries before us.

Maybe we figure it out and maybe we don't, but if history is any guide at all, we know we'll prob'ly be dealing with some even heavier shit before we get to the good stuff.

Here's to hopin' on the shortest darkest day of the year.

Solstice Tunes

An oldie - can't believe I have this (an original) on vinyl.

December --George Winston

Happy Solstice

Saturday Groove (fixed)

Many The Miles --Sara Bareilles

oops - try it now



Come On Home --Joan Armatrading





I Don't Miss You At All --Nora Jones





I'd Rather Be Happy Than Right --Michael Franks





For You And I --10cc





Over The Rainbow --Melody Gardot

Yeah, OK - But Is It Art?

Grover Washington

I dunno why, but I have a weird link between Grover and Christmas.  So here's a little light seasonal funk to lift that (hopefully) light seasonal funk on a random Friday in December.

Winelight --Grover Washington

Love Yourself

Hoping she can stick it out and become the "next Sara Bareilles" (as she mentions in one interview I heard)

All About That Bass (Accoustic) --Meghan Trainor

Today's Question

It seems we have a problem in this country with radicalized cops.  

So I'm wondering - where are the moderate cops, and why aren't they standing up in protest against the extremists in their midst?

Connecting Dots

When we stop caring for each other, it's not long before we stop caring about each other.

From truthout:

There is more at stake here than manufactured ignorance and an unconscionable flight from the truth. There is also a dangerous escape from justice, morality and the most basic principles central to a democratic society. The celebration of brutality, spectacles of violence and the affirmation of torture suggests that in a market-driven society with its unchecked individualism, sheer Darwinism and refusal to think about social costs or, for that matter, any notion of the public good, the addiction to cruelty, violence and torture becomes less difficult and almost too easy. In the age of disposability and despicable gaps in wealth, income and power, modern terror becomes normalized and points to the onslaught of a mode of totalitarianism that is more than an ephemeral moment in history. Violence is no longer marginal to American life; it is the foundation that now drives it.

Winter Song

Winter Song / White Winter Hymnal --Sil'Hooettes and The Virginia Gentlemen (UVa)

Today's Tune

My Traveling Star --James Taylor

Today's Pix

Part And Parcel

You're a woman who did a coupla shots with me at the bar, and you flirted with me and you  were dressed in a sexy-time way - which forced me to rape you.

You're a random brown person who committed a minor civil offense and then you disrespected my authority as a police officer - which forced me to kill you.

You're a herdsman living in Afghanistan; you're a Muslim, and you got sold to the CIA in 2002 for about $1000 because your goats got into your neighbor's garden one day in 1995 and you never really fessed up, and he'd held a grudge against you that whole time; but we'll disregard everything after the part about you being an Afghani Muslim - which forced me to torture you.

You're just a regular somebody who can't see his way clear to buy into a religion that requires blind unreasoning obedience to a lord - which forces that lord to condemn you to torment and suffering for a thousand eternities.

You've got nobody to blame but yourself.  You had it comin'.  You shouldn't have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  You sent yourself to hell.

It's more than a little weird that the people who're constantly demanding that everybody take personal responsibility for everything that goes on in own their lives are the same people who can't quite think their way thru to the point where they have to own their responsibility for having raped or murdered or tortured somebody.

If I can get you to believe absurdities, I can get you to commit atrocities.

The Lites (fixed)

Where's The Plan, Stan?

The More Things Change

I was all for NAFTA back in the day because I was all for Bill Clinton, because Clinton was my kinda Republican, and he was doin' it right for the right reasons, and blah bah blah.

I was a fuckin' idiot for it.



(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Ya think Crime-nibus was bad?  Ya think Defense Authorization was bad?  Ya think any of it was good?  Hold on to your hats.

Now maybe I'm just being paranoid (I hope so, actually), but because we've heard for the last few years about how the number of American manufacturing jobs has been going up (aka: Happy Talk; aka: Smoke Up Yer Skirt; aka: Bullshit), plus the fact that we're gearing up for this Trans-Pacific Partnership thingie; I think there's room to speculate on some possible connections.

Obama can strong-arm Wall Street a little by telling them he'll stop defending them against the obvious fact popular sentiment that they're all crooks, ie: "you guys have to make a good show of it by putting up some jobs in key places and key sectors; then we can invite the inference that NAFTA wasn't all that bad, and we can link the not-so-bad canard to TPP; we can leave certain sections of the tax codes unenforced; and then once TPP is approved, you can hit the tax-goodies-buffet again by writing off all the costs of those USA jobs, and get another break when you outsource those jobs to Vietnam.  It's a pretty good deal, and all you need to do is funnel enough Campaign 'Donations' in to the right races so we can make it look close and interesting so the Press Poodles can keep talking about it in breathless tones of anticipation and drama, which makes for some very good Advertising Revenue, which makes for a nice kickback scheme for more nice fat campaign contributions; all of which we must perpetuate so we can go on pretending we live in a democracy".  And that ain't all - not by half.

BTW - the Bureau of Labor Statistics (beginning Feb 2015) will start parsing out Jobs-For-Asians numbers and Jobs-For-Latinos numbers in its monthly report.  I wonder if there's any potential for shenanigans in that(?)

I really do hope I'm wrong here, but I'll be adding a goodly amount of Olestra to my diet just so I'm greased up and ready for the reaming we're about to get.

Like the man said - Pessimism is the best default position because you're always either proved right or pleasantly surprised.

Skeptical Poe

Guns Kill People

Saying otherwise is just dishonest - or straight up deliberately ignorant.



Two things really got to me:  First was Gus's mom being totally unable to reconcile her thoughts to the title of my post.  She insists on carrying the guilt with her forever because (imo) she can't help but blame herself for "improper handling of a firearm".  If only she had pointed the muzzle to the ground; if only she'd made sure Gus had stayed on the horse; if only etc etc etc

Second is Gus's dad saying he's fearful of government involvement in product liability issues because (paraphrasing) "they'll make the gun so safe it won't work".

A string of cynical calculations plus the fear and the careerism on the parts of company employees made it inevitable for these "accidents" to happen, and certainly Mrs Barber shoulda been more careful, but it was a gun that killed Gus.

Un-Togetherness

Yanking the enforcement teeth out of Dodd-Frank: "...Prohibition Against Federal Government Bailouts of Swap Entities..."  That's part of what the Crime-nibus bill is about.

Senator Warren:



Another part?  It allows rich people (and don't forget corporations are people, my friend) to buy even bigger pieces of Coin-Operated Politicians. 

And all of that shit happening in the Wall-Street-n-Washington-Circle-Jerk is very much part and parcel with this:

...That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ... Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Riots, uprisings, revolts and full-blown revolutions happen when it becomes clear that in spite of hearing the voice of the populace, a government chooses to ignore it.

It seems just too weird (even for me) to think about it, but we may actually be a lot closer than we think we are to the point where The Dirty Fucking Hippies and the Knuckle-Dragging TeaBaggers have to stop just flapping their gums about bi-partisanship and start figuring out how to make common cause.

I wonder what happens next, cuz I get one of my truly lousy feelings that there are some very powerful forces working very hard to keep us separated from one another, and I'm not convinced that a Gandhi or a Mandela is even possible now.