Green Eagle

 I suppose that many of you have, by now, heard about log4J, which I've seen described as one of the greatest internet security threats of all time.  I heard about it several days ago, and given the particular vulnerability (accidental or deliberate) of right wing websites to malware, I decided several days ago to keep away from that trash for a while.  When I am convinced that the problem has been dealt with, I will return to my usual posting. If you have not heard about log4j, here is an article from the Washington Post that explains the basics.

 Something that wingnuts have trolled liberals about for years is their alleged awarding of "participation trophies" to all kids that compete in an event, instead of just the winners.  Well, as usual, this is nothing more than made-up garbage, but in some ways they do have an argument to make here. Case in point:  Awarding the position of Attorney General of the United States as a participation trophy to a clearly weak man who is petrified of doing what needs to be done in this country. Y eah, you.  What do you have to smile about? As a result, we continue to have a Republican party that accuses all Democrats of being Satanic Communist pedophiles, and threatens them all with death, while Democrats cower in the corner, afraid to deal with the worst criminality we have ever seen in this country's government. This is the path to dictatorship, and if it happens it will not be only the Republicans' fault. 

 This news today, from Talking Points Memo: "Former Vice President Mike Pence signaled on Wednesday that it’s not a given that he’ll cooperate with the House Jan. 6 select committee." Because it's perfectly normal for someone to refuse to cooperate with an investigation into an attempt to murder them.   After all, there is nothing in the Constitution that forbids murdering the Vice President if it gets you what you want, and we know how dedicated Republicans are to a literal reading of that document.

 I had a reason at work to look at some aerial views of Auschwitz, on Google Earth.  Here is one: I took a little look at the rest of the modern city of Oswiecim.  Here is a residential neighborhood a couple of miles from the prison camp: Really, how much has changed?  Sure, these people are not headed directly to the gas chambers- oh no, a few more decades of work must be extracted from them before they are allowed to pass on to their eternal reward, but come on... Having been trained as an architect myself, I can at least express some respect for the degree to which the designers of these buildings drew their inspiration from a classic specimen of 20th century design.   What the hell is wrong with people?

We've seen, in the last few years, a collection of (naturally, Republican) new members of Congress who are as delusional and out of control as anyone since slavery proponent Preston Brooks beat a Senator on the floor of the Senate so badly that the injuries took three years to heal.  The attack by Congressman Brooks went essentially unpunished, and became a major incitement for the secession of pro-slavery States.   Preston Brooks Well, we have a similar problem now, with the likes of Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorne, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, and undoubtedly more in the future.  None of their belligerent threats have reached the level of actual physical violence yet, but they are doing all they can to provoke it. The obvious response to this hateful behavior is to eject these people from Congress, as they are patently incapable of doing their duty to the American people.  Unfortunately, as with Preston Brooks, the forces of hatred and racism are too g...

 I have not been posting much right wing garbage lately, because it has seemingly all converged on a single stupid narrative, and there are only so many laughs we can get out of the same jokes over and over again.  However, today I would like to present you with some excerpts from a single article, the contents of which have appeared at a number of right wing sites lately, and which I think is an excellent summation of the current state of their "thinking."  As usual, I cannot resist a few reflections of my own along the way.  So, let's get started: “My Fellow Americans, The Storm is Upon Us.”…John F. Kennedy Jr. 8:30 am EST Thurs. 25 Nov. 2021, (on his 61st birthday)." Because of course it is.  I just wish the storm would hit L.A. already- we could use the rain. "The Earth is now under Military Law – the biggest military operation in history – with troops of 17 Nations under leadership of General Flynn fighting for the liberation of Humanity." Because of c...

 From the Washington Post: "Taliban sends hundreds of fighters to eastern Afghanistan to wage war against Islamic State" I remember the Iran-Iraq war from the eighties being described as a war in which the world was rooting for both sides to lose.  Well, here we are again. 

Okay, a lot of people are going to abuse me for saying this, but I believe it is true.  Here is my guide to Democratic victory: 1.  No more talk about racism 2. No more talk about trans rights Are these issues not important?  Of course they are important but they have been so poisoned by Republican baiting that, for every person persuaded by talk about them, three or four are turned off.  If Democrats want to win, they have to leave these issues alone for now. 3. Every time a Democrat gets in front of a microphone or on a TV broadcast, they must insist that the conversation be about one thing- the real threat facing this country today, which is the effort by Republicans to turn this country into a fascist dictatorship, which has been their main goal at least back to the time of Reagan.  Republicans are so successful at using this technique of assault in spreading their lies; it is about time Democrats use it to spread the truth.  Because no other issue matt...

Here's a story that our nation's press, which has been willing to publicize such blatant Republican lies as Obama's birth certificate, Benghazi, Critical Race Theory, Hunter Biden's alleged laptop or Hillary's e-mails, has managed to forget almost immediately.  From Newsweek: "Images captured during the January 6 riot showed former Vice President Mike Pence hiding in an underground parking garage, according to the author of a book about the events surrounding the incidents at the Capitol. ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl said while researching his book, he found out that Pence had been with an official White House photographer during the hours of the riot carried out by supporters of ex-President Donald Trump.  "He was in this concrete parking garage...with his family," Karl said. "This is the vice president of the United States and he is, like, holed up in a basement." Why was he in a parking garage while a screaming mo...

 Where else am I going to learn about things like this?

 A case study in 21st century propaganda We've seen the right in this country weaponize a propaganda technique that I have rarely seen talked about: the fabrication or adoption of words or short phrases which are designed to stimulate rage toward the propagandists' enemies.  "Benghazi,"  "Her e-mails," "Socialism," "Tax and spend," "weak on defense," and on and on; these phrases have shown themselves to have a powerful effect on the uninformed and unreflective, if repeated often enough, and have contributed in major ways to keeping right wing governments in power around the world. Nothing along these lines has had more effect than the misuse of the term "apartheid" in connection with the state of Israel.  The endless repetition of this term, filled with hateful associations, has swayed millions around the world to turn against the Israeli government, and Jews in general.  And frighteningly, in this incidence, the tacti...

 Yeah, I'm back.  Let's just start out here with a wonderful picture, which I have seen multiple times in the last few days, just to get us off in the right mood: Because we can all imagine Trump getting his suit wet to save a couple of babies.  My opinion is that they are babies with cancer, and he is taking them into the water to drown them so he can steal the money people donated for their health care. And on we go.  Let's just start with one of those guys with a broken caps lock key.  Wingnuts never replace broken keyboards because even the cheap ones cost as much as a whole bunch of Oxycontin. "MATT GAETZ ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, SMALL HELOS ALL OVER THE LA AREA, CARGO SHIP CRISIS A MILITARY OP, MILITARY OP IN SAN FRANCISCO, ADRENOCHROME FACTORIES SHUT DOWN, CLOSER TO BIG WAKE UP EVENT, RED OCTOBER, HUNTERS MOON, ALEC BALDWIN RITUAL KILLING ON SET, JAB VICTIM TELLS HER STORY, GOV TRYING TO GENOCIDE AMERICAN CHILDREN, MASSIVE STORM HEADING TO NE, BIDEN STATES ...

 I am going to do something generally unforgivable in the blogging world.  I am going to repeat an entire post from Daily Kos.  The post concerns the Rasmussen Report, treated like a serious Republican leaning polling organization over and over again in the mainstream media.  Anyway, here is the post, by Kos community member Gary Hurd: "I just had a revealing phone call from RASMUSSEN REPORT (732) 776-9777. They first bragged about how important Rasumssen report was. Then came the first question; "Generally speaking do you think that the country is on the right path, or on the wrong path? If the right path press 1, If in the wrong path press 2, If unsure press 3." I pressed 1. Rasmussen's AI replied, "That is an invalid response. We will repeat the question; Generally speaking do you think that the country is on the right path, or on the wrong path? If the right path press 1, If in the wrong path press 2, If unsure press 3." I pressed 1. Rasmussen's AI ...

 Another brief post with a probably impossible to enact idea about how to deal with people like Joe Manchin. In the judiciary, we have the well established notion of recusal- a judge is expected to remove himself from any case in which he has a vested interest.  Well, here we have Joe Manchin, who personally makes half a million dollars a year from his family's business, which is coal mining, insisting that all clean energy legislation be gutted from any pending legislation.  In any sane government that would be immediately recognized as nothing but cheap self-dealing and corruption.  Why can there not be a Congressional recusal rule requiring that no member of Congress can vote on a bill in which he has a significant financial interest?  I mean, is it really okay for this one person to endanger the continued existence of the human race, just to line his own pockets for a few more years in a business that is vanishing anyway? Oh, how stupid of me- We can't have ...

 How about telling Manchin that if the Democrats lose their majority in the Senate next year because Manchin sunk their chance to deliver on their promises, it will be a minority without Manchin- that he will never get one penny from the party ever again, and will have his position in the Senate diminished to the point of irrelevancy.  If they are going to lose, they might as well do it with dignity, and that means without Manchin.

About Merrick Garland, I mean.  Maybe the guy is a weak little parody Democrat who is too afraid of his own shadow to use his position to do what we all know is right.  Quite a contrast there to good old William Barr, who wasn't afraid to prostitute his office to do anything bad, including covering up clear treason on the part of his buddy Trump, and using the justice system to persecute Trump's enemies in a manner reminiscent of Joe Stalin.   Well, I guess Trump had the kind of attorney general he wanted, and sad to say, maybe Biden has his too. Barr did Trump's dirty work.  Biden seems to want to do next to nothing about the threat to our government, and Garland seems to be helping him to do just that.   Now about the aforementioned Joe Biden.  I remember back in the Clinton and Bush administrations, feeling that there were three people in the Senate who were the weakest Democrats of all in standing up to Republican corruption- Dick Gephart, Tom...

 What, back already?  I tell you, I could do this three times a day if either I or you had the patience for it.   Anyway, off we go, right over the cliff: “Tomorrow you will find out the truth!” …Melania Trump on Fri. 8 Oct. 2021 Whoops, didn't happen.  Quel Surprise. "Judy Note: Late Wed. evening 6 Oct. Global Currency Reset codes were delivered to the higher Tiers – to be made liquid on Thurs. morning 7 Oct. according to a reliable Source." Higher tiers...whatever that is.  I guess it is a good thing. "It was not known when the monies would filter down to us in the Internet Group, Tier 4B." Never.  How about never, Jackass.  Can you really be so stupid as to think after all that has happened that Donald Trump would spend one penny for anyone but himself? "Boom! Trump Decapitates The Snake= Trump Prepares Australia for Martial Law" Boom!  It would be interesting to know exactly what gave Trump the authority to "prepare" Australia for martial...