Today's Weirdness

Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone from a piece that was posted New Year's Eve:

On a night when more than a million potentially lawbreaking, probably tipsy revelers will be crowding the most densely-populated city blocks in America, all eyes will be on the city cops stuck with holiday duty.

Why? Because the New York City Police are in the middle of a slowdown. The New York Post is going so far as to call it a "virtual work stoppage."

Furious at embattled mayor Bill de Blasio, and at what Police Benevolent Association chief Patrick Lynch calls a "hostile anti-police environment in the city," the local officers are simply refusing to arrest or ticket people for minor offenses – such arrests have dropped off a staggering 94 percent, with overall arrests plunging 66 percent.

If you're wondering exactly what that means, the Post is reporting that the protesting police have decided to make arrests "only when they have to." (Let that sink in for a moment. Seriously, take 10 or 15 seconds).

Quick and obvious tho't: "conservatives" have been warning us on social media (eg) about all the bad shit that happens if cops decide not to respond to the public's call for help etc etc etc - which of course sounds more like a threat because..well...because a threat is exactly what it fucking is, but no matter.  What makes me nuts is that these "conservatives" seem so totally oblivious to the fact that the cops are threatening to do exactly what "conservatives" are always saying is exactly what they wanna do, ie: cut back on the reach and the scope and the intrusiveness of Da Gubmint.

Back to you, Matt:

In an alternate universe where this pseudo-strike wasn't the latest sortie in a standard-issue right-versus left political showdown, one could imagine this protest as a progressive or even a libertarian strike, in which police refused to work as backdoor tax-collectors and/or implement Minority Report-style pre-emptive policing policies, which is what a lot of these Broken Windows-type arrests amount to.

But that's not what's going on here. As far as I can tell, there's nothing enlightened about this slowdown, although I'm sure there are thousands of cops who are more than happy to get a break from Broken Windows policing.

I've met more than a few police in the last few years who've complained vigorously about things like the "empty the pad" policies in some precincts, where officers were/are told by superiors to fill predetermined summons quotas every month.

It would be amazing if this NYPD protest somehow brought parties on all sides to a place where we could all agree that policing should just go back to a policy of officers arresting people "when they have to."

Because it's wrong to put law enforcement in the position of having to make up for budget shortfalls with parking tickets, and it's even more wrong to ask its officers to soak already cash-strapped residents of hot spot neighborhoods with mountains of summonses as part of a some stats-based crime-reduction strategy.

Over the last 25 or 30 years, we've grown allergic to paying for the things we want.  The Wall Streeters and the Glibertarians and that one rapid in-law everybody's got who can't stop agreeing with and then regurgitating everything he hears on DumFux News have been carping loudly about "other people's money" - which is a term of art that's very very VERY familiar to the Criminal Cronies of Commerce because they've been applying that mode of operation to their dirty little deals for as long as there's been the tiniest notion of capitalism.  But now that they've more or less captured The Commons, they're looking to complete the take-over, so they've been trying desperately to make us believe they're talking about saving us by cutting back on taxation (ie: driving down our operating costs yada yada yada), but they're really just shifting the burden.  They're taking that burden off of themselves and their very wealthy benefactors, and putting it on the shoulders of everybody else.  They've pushed for - and we've helped them achieve - a pay as you go system that's evolved to where everything "the lower classes" do on a daily basis is scrutinized to the point where nobody can go more than a coupla blocks away from home without breaking the law in some way, which means they'll be stopped and frisked and ticketed and fined - all in order to pay the cops to protect the 1% from being killed and eaten by the very people who're paying for the privilege of being badgered and extorted and generally fucked over every day.  Welcome to USAmerica Inc.

Sometimes when I hear 'cop', I think 'Sheriff'.  

And when I hear [insert name of locality here],
I think 'Nottingham'.

That one's on me - feel free to print up as many t-shirts and bumper stickers your pea-pickin' little hearts desire.

A Blast From The Past

I like to check back once in a while to see what (if anything) changes over the few months that practically every talking head in the Chatter-verse always tells us is a lifetime in politics.

Here's a Semi-Oldie from Addicting Info posted way back in April 2014:

Republicans complain about video games and Hollywood, routinely whining that the influence of the mainstream media on the next generation is ‘destroying America.’ They claim that the ‘unGodly‘ and the ‘sexually immoral’ are encouraging young people to become degenerate, God hating heathens, bound for eternal damnation.

Who is really destroying the fabric of American society? Is it the gays with their ‘homosexual agenda,‘ and Disney with their top secret plot to corrupt the minds of all children via cartoon feature films with catchy theme songs? Or is it another segment of society altogether? A segment of our population that teaches American youth that violence is the answer to all problems; one that role models disrespect for everyone, from teachers to the police, to the president; a segment of our population that pretends to be ‘Godly,’ but values wealth more than humanity and role models that truth in everything they say and do?

Republicans are horrible role models for America’s young people. Representatives of the GOP promote an agenda which is racist, classist, sexist, violent and uneducated. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Here are the top ten reasons that Republicans make horrible role models.

It’s OK to degrade women.

1. Sexism. Republicans have consistently voted against the equal pay for equal work act. Republicans have repeatedly stood againstthe Violence Against Women Act. They consistently pass legislation that attempts to take away a women’s right to determine what happens to her own body. They blame single mothers for the ills of society, almost as often as they blame gays, liberals, atheistsand the devil.

What republicans role model is nothing more than arrogance and egotism. They attempt to disguise these character flaws behind terms like ‘traditional family values.’ They teach boys to disrespect their mothers, sisters and female classmates. They teach girls that it is their duty to allow others to disrespect them. They teach young men that they aren’t required to control themselves sexually. They teach young women that if boys look at or touch them in a way they don’t like, it must be their own fault.

These are not lessons that most parents hope their children will learn. They are lessons that lead to girls and women being harmed, and to boys and men doing jail time. They’re lessons that lead to lawsuits and harassment suits and personal injury suits and lost wages suits and lots of other things that aren’t good, for either boys or girls to learn.

Try violence first.

2. Violence: Whether they are demanding that the United States get involved in another war, calling for the killing of Muslims in the streets, marching around like Nazis showing off their guns or threatening to kill the president, the Republican mentality is one that teaches children that violence is the answer to all problems.

‘Negotiation is weakness.’ ‘Diplomacy is for sissies.’ ‘Just shoot and kill everyone you don’t like.’ This strategy is to be applied to people who hold different religious views, different political views, people who come from other cultures, those who have different skin colors or those who are ‘not the same‘ in any other way.

Let’s not forget that conservatives believe that the only way to deal with criminals is to kill them. Also, the only way to deal with someone who makes you uncomfortable is to kill them, under Stand Your Ground laws, another barbaric product of the GOP shoot first and shoot last mentality.

Needless to say these are not lessons most parents would choose to teach their children.

Disrespect for authority is good.

3. Disrespect; Republicans role model disrespect in everything they say and do. Disrespect for the President and members of his cabinet. They show disrespect for public workers,  fire fighters, teachers, and just about every other person of authority, namely those who most Americans try to teach their children to respect.

Republican attitudes toward the police are conflicting. If you’re talking about paying taxes to fund them, they hate the police. On the other hand, if you’re talking about militarizing them so they can kill unarmed black or Hispanic children, they can’t praise them enough.

To republicans, even our men and women in uniform are not worthy of respect or compassion. Instead they’re just props to be used in the latest production of the never ending GOP political theater. They are the first to send US troops off to war, and the last to fulfill their promises to them, once they’ve returned back home.

You don’t have to play well with ‘others’.

4. Racism; Most parents don’t want their children to grow up full of hate. They don’t want their kids to judge others based on the color of their skin or their country of origin. But Republicans consistently resort to using the Southern Strategy, a strategy originally created by the GOP to woo racist southern voters. It’s used to manipulate and divide people, by turning the races against one another.

Republican party leaders cultivate a culture of fear, envy, hate and bigotry. They sell their base a distorted version of reality, full of paranoia, mistrust and suspicion. These are not traits most parents want to cultivate in their children, but the message is always there. “That guy is out to get you.” “Those people want to take stuff from you.” “Someone over there is plotting something that threatens your entire existence.”

Do not get an education.

5. Education: Republicans are strongly opposed to learning. They generally oppose public education, and specifically oppose anyone learning anything that falls outside the established guidelines of their personal religious beliefs. Republicans deny science, despise math, reject facts, alter history, condemn reading and even oppose teaching critical thinking in schools. Let’s not even discuss sex education.

While GOP leaders pander to religious extremist’s demands for government enforced and funded religious indoctrination, their reasons for wanting to dumb down the populace are motivated by other factors. Promoting the idea that being educated is a bad thing, an anti-God thing, a ‘liberal elite’ thing, makes being uneducated seem appealing, especially to those who are uneducated.

Most parents hope to see their children do well in school. They want their kids to get all A’s, and that includes getting good grades in Science and math. They would like to see their kids develop critical thinking skills. Parents also want their kids to know about STD’s, where babies come from and how to keep from getting one. Ignorance just breeds more Republicans.

The value of a person is based on the amount of wealth and possessions they own.

6: Materialism: Stuff matters. What you need is more stuff. The more stuff you have the more important you are. People who don’t have stuff are worthless. The Republican model for American children is superficial, materialistic and centers on the accumulation of money and things, always at the expense of other people.

Parents have a hard enough time trying to teach their children that they don’t have to get stuff all the time. Thankfully, the “stuff phase” is one kids usually outgrow with age. Republicans, on the other hand, really believe whoever has the most toys in the end wins. They never got the message, “you can’t take it with you.”

Most parents don’t want their child’s identity and sense of self worth tied up in how much stuff they do or don’t have. They hope for something better, like that their kids will turn out to be compassionate, generous, honest, kind, well mannered, that they will do well in school (see number five), become a valuable member of a community, and most hope that their kids will aspire to make the world a better place. To put it another way, greed and selfishness are not character traits that most parents hope to see flourish in their kids.

Don’t give a hoot, go ahead and pollute.

7: Environment: Just throw your trash wherever you want. (God will clean it up?) While many parents strive to teach their children to appreciate nature and respect the earth, water and wildlife, the message Republicans send is quite different. The GOP philosophy is that there’s nothing about the earth in and of itself, that is valuable. If you can’t rip it up, siphon it off, drill it, frack it, mine it or exploit it in some other way, it’s worthless. Everything on earth is meant for monetary gain. If it can’t be bought and sold it has no value. 

Name calling is a good substitute for reasonable debate.

8: Less Than Civil Discourse: This is a constant. While most people would prefer that their children not call names or hurl insultsat other people, Republicans have made this standard procedure for the adults in government. Debating facts and statistics or engaging in civil discourse are things of the past. If you disagree with someone, spew all sorts of verbal insults, scream over them, cut them off when they are speaking or just dismiss what they are saying as ‘lies and propaganda‘. If that doesn’t work, shout Benghazi and run.

Never listen to the other person. Instead of thoughtfully considering other views, do whatever it takes to silence them. If someone attempts to express a point of view that falls outside the one you espouse, just shout words like traitor, commie, Nazi, feminazi, fascist, un-American, liar, anti-God, Obamabot, etc… If it’s a woman, call her a whore. If it’s a man, call him a lazy moocher, feminine and weak or just go with whatever else comes to mind. If it’s the president, you can always fall back on the n-word.

GOP role models include the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Christie, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Louie Gohmert and many others, all cut from the same cloth. The message is you don’t have to respect others who disagree with you. The loudest, rudest, most obnoxious person wins, not on the merits of the argument, but because they successfully shouted over opposing voices.

Honesty is not the best policy.

9: Lying: One thing almost every parent wants is for their children to grow up to be honest. Republicans are notorious for lying. Whether they’re lying about Obamacare, fictional death panels and guillotines, or inventing scary stories about FEMA camps and lizard people, honesty is not something Republicans have developed a reputation for.

Republicans lie as a matter of policy. From lying to kids about sex to lying to their followers about ‘Benghazi,’ distorting the truth is a way of life for the right wing. It’s hard to keep track of all the things that Republicans lie about, from trickle down economics to President Obama’s record, not even the fact checkers can’t keep up.

Here’s a newsflash, even though republicans claim to be the ‘family values party’ (the biggest lie of all?) dishonesty is not a trait that most families value.

Say one thing, do another.

10: Lack of Integrity. The level of hypocrisy in the Republican party is totally astounding. Whenever a GOP politician is caught doing the exact same thing they campaigned against, the standard excuse from the GOP is ‘dems do it too.’

Admittedly, Democrats aren’t perfect, but it’s rare to find one who ran on a platform of “vote for me, and I’ll outlaw stuff based on my righteous right-winged feign devotion to God and the Bible.” It’s also rare to hear Democrats campaigning against other people’s supposed sins, homosexuality, drug use, their religious beliefs or some other perceived evil.

Once you’ve gone around trying to convince everyone that you’re a devoted religious fanatic who will save America from its sins, it’s a totally different ball game when you are caught doing drugs, cheating on your wife, having a same sex fling, ripping off your own supporters or doing a host of other things that are supposed to be against your own religious beliefs (the ones you tried to shove down everyone else’s throats). That’s the definition of hypocrisy.

Integrity is doing what you say. It’s living by the same standards you seek to impose on others. Most parents hope to instill some sense of integrity in their children. A good way to avoid raising children who lack integrity is to keep them away from republicans.

So yeah - pretty much just the way it's been for what's getting to be a very long time.

Today's Pix

A Little Hang Over Relief

Some Tyrant --Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O'Donovan



O Mama --Aoife O'Donavan





Fuck All The Perfect People --Chip Taylor & The New Ukrainians





Wish You Were Here --David Gilmour





Lovin' Her Was Easier --Kris Kristofferson





Little Bird --Lisa Hannigan





You Can Close Your Eyes --James Taylor w/ Carole King

Start Fresh

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.” —Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

hat tip = FB Friend VWE

Come For The Chomsky

...stay for the Carlin.



And remember - it's not about Libs vs Cons or Red vs Blue.  

It's about moderates vs extremists.  

Caring about each other vs not caring about anybody.

It's about trying to live up to the notion of a more perfect union - and staying exceptional.

UpChuck Todd Rides Again

This one's making the rounds big time, so why not pile on a little?



Todd's main "point" is that if he barks at the politicians who make statements that are obviously untrue, then those politicians won't come on the show again.  As long as he doesn't call 'em on their bullshit, he'll always have a steady stream of "News Makers" on the show in order to attract lotsa viewers who'll absorb some of the enlightening messages from all those ads about Lockheed's F35 and Raytheon's new E-Surveilance Software and the killer drones from General Atomics (yes, that's a real company).

That's what makes sense now.  That's what passes for reasoning.  Chuck Todd doesn't want people who don't tell the truth to stop coming on his TV show.

I'm not big on arguing from a strictly binary position, but this one's kinda hard to avoid: Chuck Todd wants people to lie to us, on his show.

What exactly would be the harm in keeping liars off your show, UpChuck?

Cuz - Science, Muthuhfuckuh

Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 27, 2014

And also too - it'd be kinda nice to see this happening a little more frequently back here in USAmerica Inc.

Winter Song

Winter Song --Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Micaelson

Lying Media

The DumFux News affiliate in Baltimore ran a clip that made it sound like protesters were ending their chant with "kill a cop".

And of course, it was bullshit (Hanlon's Razor notwithstanding).  The station took the story down after they got a lot of push-back, and they even made with the usual "apology", saying it was accidental - which is also bullshit because you don't accidentally do a quick-cut edit unless you're trying to make the thing say something it doesn't actually say.  This does not happen by accident.  Somebody wanted that clip out there.  Somebody OK'd that clip for air, and for posting on the website.



But it's prob'ly not gonna matter to the rubes - they got their Scary-Black-People fix and that's all anybody cares about.

In case anybody wants to know:
We won't stop
We can't stop
'Til killer cops
Are in cell blocks

Hanlon's Razor

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained in terms of stupidity.

I'll be trying a little harder to keep that in mind from now on as I try to sort my way thru some of the phenomenally idiotic political arguments that have come to be the benchmark of public discourse here in USAmerica Inc.

After Xmas Pix

A Song For Christmas

An Atheist Christmas Carol --Vienna Teng


It's the season of grace coming out of the void
Where a man is saved by a voice in the distance
It's the season of possible miracle cures
Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown
Where time begins to fade
And age is welcome home

It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise
And holding fast with sharp realization
It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention
You are safe here you know now

Don't forget
Don't forget I love
I love
I love you

It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart
Of feeling the full weight of our burdens
It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear
Not alone in the dark