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All posts for the month April, 2022

WONDER…and OIL CHECK

Published April 10, 2022 by Nan Mykel

WONDER

I doubt it’s some god, not even

an intelligent designer, but

there’s something so beyond

our ken at work out there, in here,

that we cannot begin to admit

it to ourselves.

Too many inexplicable surprises —

where is that grand metaphor

for us to munch on in the abyss

of our nights?  Our guesses are

getting colder, not hotter.  Can you

feel it?  The more we know, the less.

What’s really behind our blind spot?

Where did mathematics come from?

What human gifts are we shufling off

onto the robots, and what will they do

with them?

_____________________

OIL CHECK

When reading about plans to make a

monkey man, what was your first thought?

  1. How clever we are
  2. How famous the scientist will be.
  3. What the monkey man will look like
  4. That he’ll make a good pet.
  5. Poor devil
  6. Would make a good soldier
  7. Anxiety
  8. Excitement

 

 

 

 

 

How nice is Barack Obama when there’s no camera around? Reblog

Published April 8, 2022 by Nan Mykel

My brother said he was just a pretty chilled and relaxed cat. Drank his beer from the bottle and sat on plastic chairs like anyone else. Very happy to take selfies with staff and chat amiably with whomever. And then he went back to his kite surfing or whatever. Seems like a pretty ordinary and pleasant American Dad out on holiday – he just also happened to be famous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credit: Quora and Wikipedia Commons

DARK MONEY VERSUS DEMOCRACY

Published April 3, 2022 by Nan Mykel

Image NY times; Associated Press: Granny D

A recent posting on daily kos observes,  “People mock, and wonder how truckers (most of whom are economically  vulnerable) can afford to waste gas, and their own time, in an unprofitable semi-siege with no specific goal. Answer: they are funded by dark money. And I’d be surprised if they aren’t getting tactical advice as well.”

Dark money was made possible by the passage of  Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the relationship between campaign finance and free speech. It was argued in 2009 and decided in 2010. Wikipedia

Date decidedJanuary 21, 2010

MajorityKennedy, joined by RobertsScaliaAlitoThomas (all but Part IV); StevensGinsburgBreyerSotomayor (Part IV)
ArgumentOral argument
Docket no08-205. 
It passed, despite the heroic efforts of Ms. DORIS (Granny D)  HADDOCK, in  2010.  She said that she worried with fewer people voting, the nation was letting democracy slip slide away. But she believed squeezing big money out of politics would help bring those people back. To protect democracy from being eroded by enabling powerful  corporations, to have more power in elections than rank and file individuals, Granny at ninety years old completed a 3,200 mile walk across the United States, from California to Washington, D.C in 2000.  Granny died some three months after the decision she opposed passed.  She was one hundred years old.
_______________________________________________
        Gun Lobbyist Wrote Ohio GOP Law-makers’ Permitless Carry Speech, Document Shows:  You may have read that  less than a year ago  two Republicans in the Ohio House told lawmakers their “constitutional carry” bill would ease the “bureaucratic hassle”  of undergoing training and a background check in order to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon.  Chris Dorr, the “no compromise” gun lobbyist and executive director of Ohio Gun Owners,  said he “maybe/probably wrote the speech   According to an article in the Ohio Capital Journal by Jake Zuckerman, “Dorr writing the testimony is among the clearest signs of the close working relationship  between gun lobbyists  and Republican lawmakers.
“For instance, Sen. George Lang, a West Chester  Township Republican, co-sponsored the permitless carry  bill that was sent to Mike DeWine.  “He owns an insurance company that sells firearms liability policies for those who shoot others in purported self-defense.  His business partners include the Buckeye Firearms Association’s executive  director and another lawyer with the lobbying group.”
Rep. Thomas Brinkman, a co-sponsor of the Permitless Carry speech, referred to the “bureaucratic hassle” of undergoing training and a background check.  Requiring “government-mandated rigamarole first “which is a violation of their God-given rights stipulated under the Second Amendment.”
Wait a minute.  Who profits by skipping background checks and gun safety training?  These duly elected politicians must have a pretty dim view of a God who lets felons  carry concealed weapons among us and not require gun safety and other training.
Current estimate of gun ownership in America is 120 firearms per 100 citizens.
QUESTION:  How would January 6 have ended if “constitutional carry” was in effect in Washington, D.C.?  Ohio was the 23rd state to pass permitless carry legislation, and Gov. DeWine signed the bill March 15, 2022.
______________________________________________
Shades of Granny D!  If the Supreme Court in 2010 had taken another minute to think about it, they would have realized they were setting up a system that might never be reversed.  Because they allowed big money to carry so much weight, that big money could  forever be brought into any attempt to extinguish its own lifeblood.  Tell me if I’m wrong.   There is a movement continuing, however, still fighting for democracy under the name “Our Democracy Is for People Campaign.”  (The campaign for an amendment to the Citizens United  ruling  of 2010  is  “Democracy for All Amendment,”  and is taking the form of hundreds of environmental, labor, faith, civil rights, economic justice and other groups.)

 

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