REPORT ON THE 'PERMISSION' ERROR MSGS

If you have been getting the "You do not have the necessary permission for the specified Page to perform the requested action" pop-ups you are likely annoyed - but let's look deeper at what might be going on:

1) best choice is that this is caused by Russki/Korean/Chinese gov't hackers laying down some worm/virus s/w at Facebook

2) while option #1 may be hard to prove, it is equally dangerous no matter its source

3) just proves that not enough money is being spent on security and-or tech support at Facebook

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Mitch McConnell, King of Cover-Ups

Over 50 years ago, Mitch McConnell was the subject of a cover-up at the age of twenty-five. He earned a B.A. in political science in 1964 and worked as an intern for Senator John Sherman Cooper. McConnell was called up by the draft in 1967 and was lucky to get into the Army Reserve (which were not then serving overseas). He lasted 37 days in the Army, court-martialed for sodomy.

Sodomy is not actually mentioned in the Judeo-Xian Bible as some terrible sin, that book just reviles Sodomites (people from Sodom) in many ways. But in the time and location of Kentucky in 1967, sodomy meant any sexual act other than the missionary position between a married male-female couple.

Mitch got caught having sex in the barracks on an Army base during training and a quick court martial sentenced him to a dishonorable discharge. Details are not known. Sen. Cooper intervened with the camp commander (copies of the telegram exist) asking for a medical discharge, which shows on record as 'optic neuritis'; that diagnosis was supposed to preclude military service, but no other cases of such a discharge have been found. No record of a physical exam has been found; treatment with steroids was then available, but no record of such treatment has been found. The telegram stated that McConnell wanted to attend N.Y.U., but it never happened.

A FOIA request to the Selective Service in late 2007 was stonewalled; they produced a summary document with false information. Reference to a transcript of the court martial exists among McConnell's archives, but that reference has the strange notation 'not on file'.

Times have radically changed in the fifty-plus years since the court martial, and not many would fault McConnell for whatever sexual activity took place so many decades ago - well, maybe Kentucky hasn't gotten any wiser - but the real issue for most Americans is the cover-up, the privileged young man being excused by political heavyweights.

And here we are in 2020 with 'Moscow' Mitch McConnell involved in another cover-up, this time excusing a congenital liar and confessed extortionist and tax cheat and embezzler and sexual predator of abusing the power of his office for personal gain. And how many such cover-ups by and for McConnell will be found in those many years between, once the United States has a constitutional government again?
Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Educating Trolls

The many, many fascist trolls on Facebook and elsewhere epitomize ignorance & stupidity. Education will fix that: the purpose of true education is to make the population more and more progressive (which is why Republicans are opposed to education). But first these trolls have to give up being hate-mongers.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Working Minds Essay #116: 'Free Speech' Is Not Guaranteed

FREE SPEECH IS NOT GUARANTEED - Y'all should read the actual First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . ."

First off, that refers to Congress (only).

Secondly, no venue is required to provide access to any hate-mongering group or individual, refusal is completely legal.

Thirdly, what the racist-nazi-fascist minority that follow IMPOTUS carefully forget is that Freedom of Speech goes both ways, such that any town square soapbox hate speech will likely be surrounded by majority Americans chanting loudly to drown out the hateful drivel - this is why the creeps try to access indoor venues that they can control and keep from interference by any sort of reality.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

My Websites - Year-End Statistics for 2019

Readers here probably don't much care, but this is posted for the record:

Total on the several domains are 1,772 pages and 31,029 coded covers (books, DVDs, posters, etc).

There are 136 new pages & 1,669 newly-coded covers for 2019.

Other web-related 2019 statistics include: reached 688 connections {up just 2} on LinkedIn; 351 friends {up 77} on two Facebook accounts; 18 postings to my blog {all-time count now 455} . . . and the worser 2019 statistic for Amazon was $97.53 in commissions.

Non-web-related 2019 statistics include: body weight now slightly down at 277 pounds and my trusty red 2004 Chevy Blazer has 194,333 miles on it.

Also, since I am now 75½ years old, I keep getting slower and the various pains get stronger and the increased pain medication makes me take more naps; for example, last year I proudly posted the Year-End Statistics Page on January First, this year it took a week to do.

{ Anyone interested in the details can go here. }

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

News Factoids for Fourth Quarter 2019

ECONOMICS DEPT.

Stock market under Trump posts record highs, but markets under Obama performed far better -- headline at newsweek.com

Manufacturing slump worsens
A key gauge of U.S. factory activity slipped in September to its weakest reading in 10 years as slowing global economic growth and the U.S.-China trade war hurt exports, according to a monthly survey released Tuesday 10-1 by the Institute for Supply Management • "We have now tariffed our way into a manufacturing recession in the U.S. and globally," said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group

Reuters October 1: U.S. manufacturing activity tumbled to a more than 10-year low in September as lingering trade tensions weighed on exports, further heightening financial market fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter. The economy’s fading fortunes have been attributed to the Trump administration’s 15-month trade war with China, which has sapped business confidence and undermined manufacturing.

The federal deficit rose to $134 billion in October, a 34 percent increase over last October, according to Treasury Department data released Wednesday. The Treasury Department estimated that the full 2020 fiscal year deficit would be greater than $1 trillion for the first time since 2002.

The 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population. -- The Guardian, UK 11/2019


JOBS DEPT.

California accounted for nearly three-quarters of US jobs added in February == per cnbc

US business hiring falls to a 7-year low ~~~ per the October jobs report

Trump trade war with China has cost 300,000 U.S. jobs, per Moody's estimates

The $15 minimum wage was supposed to hurt New York City restaurants — but both revenue and employment are up ~~~ per marketwatch.com

"80 percent of hourly retail workers have fluctuating schedules" and
"40 percent of hourly workers don’t get more than a week’s notice about their schedules" ~~ per The Atlantic

Trump Has Created 1.5 Million Fewer Jobs Than Obama - per forbes.com 9-2019

Cummins, the largest maker of truck engines in the US, announces 2,000 layoffs ~~ per Business Insider, 11/2019


HEALTHCARE DEPT.

New from STAT: "An estimated 35,000 Americans die of antibiotic-resistant infections each year -- one every 15 minutes -- according to a stark 11-2019 report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that reveals that the problem is substantially greater than previously estimated."

Measles killed 140,000 people in 2018, most of them children, as outbreaks hit all around the world, the World Health Organization said. In all, nearly 10 million people were infected. The figures for 2019 could be even worse. Provisional data in November showed that cases had tripled compared to the same period in 2018.


THE ENVIRONMENT

When bay scallop season opened in November, most of the adult scallops in Peconic Bay, Long Island were dead.

Russia’s warm winter has deprived Moscow of snow in December, caused plants to bloom, and awakened bears from hibernation.


HIGH TECH DEPT.

Amazon controls roughly half of US e-commerce and 5% of all US retail sales. It also holds nearly half of global cloud services through AWS, and is carving out a sizable chunk of search.
•Facebook counts 2.2 billion daily active users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. That’s 29% of the entire global population.
•Since 2017, the European Commission has fined Google €8.3 billion ($9.1 billion) on competition grounds.
•In the US, 50 state attorneys general are investigating Google and 47 are investigating Facebook.

Luxembourg Becomes First Country to Make All Public Transit Free


POLITICS DEPT.

According to Census demographic trends, in the next couple of decades, half of America’s population will live in just eight states. The half that is whiter, older, more rural, and more conservative, will be spread across the other 42 states. That’s 84 senators for them, and 16 senators for the other half of America.

SCARY NEWS ITEM - Mike Huckabee announced on December 12th that he is in charge of Donald Trump's re-election campaign for 2024.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

December 2019 Quotations (56)

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants."
~~ patriot and abolitionist Frederick Douglass [1818-95], in December of 1860

"What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?"
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018]

"Existentialism consists of experiencing experience directly."
~~ G.E. Nordell

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”
~~ Italian neo-Marxist Antonio Gramsci [1891-1937]

"The most beautiful thing [THAT] we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955], in 'What I Believe'

"[The Confederate flag is] offensive to an entire race."
~~ Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"It is not a simple matter to differentiate unsuccessful from successful experiments . . . [Most] work that is finally successful is the result of a series of unsuccessful tests in which difficulties are gradually eliminated."
~~ rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard [1882-1945]

"The Republican Party consists of lobbyists, letchers, liars, and lunkheads."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]

CUM DUBITO DESISTO — when in doubt, don't

"[Trump's] going after me on his Twitter account was sort of the end for me. A sign of full-blown demagoguery, as if Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy got together and had a baby and it ended up being Donald Trump."
~~ Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director

“Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality.”
~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945]

"Do the best that you can, with what you have, where you are."
~~ Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919]

"I don’t make the rules – the elves do."
~~ Emma Soren, in The New Yorker Magazine

"The events that shape our lives can never be foretold, but only withstood and reckoned with for as long as we live."
~~ Joanne Walker

"Whenever you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble – and you will be right more than half the time."
~~ educator Henry B. Eyring

"There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea."
~~ Joseph Conrad [1857-1924]

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
~~ poet May Sarton [1912-95]

"Only a fool argues with a skunk, a mule, or a cook."
~~ Will Rogers [1879-1935]

"The years forever fashion new dreams when old ones go. God pity a one-dream man."
~~ Bob Goddard

"Future historians will have to end every paragraph about Trump with the disclaimer, "Seriously, no kidding, he really said that shit."
~~ John Sheirer, on Facebook

"The most important thing any teacher can teach a student is how to learn."
~~ Martin Heidegger [1889-1976]

"The system cannot propose a place for novelty, so we must create something outside the system as it is."
~~ French philosopher Alain Badiou

“America is the land of opportunity and don’t ever forget it.”
~~ Will Rogers [1879-1935]

“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, we can’t eat money, or drink oil.”
~~ Indigenous teen water protector Autumn Peltier addressing the United Nations General Assembly, 9/2019

"We are the change and change is coming."
~~ Greta Thunberg, at the end of her speech at the Fridays For Future rally in Montreal, Canada on Friday 9/27/2019

"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."
~~ Dwight D. Eisenhower [1890-1969]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

"President Trump, you have the right to remain silent."
~~ Mikel Jollett

"I'm not telling you [that] it is going to be easy. I'm telling you [that] it's going to be worth it."
~~ entertainer Judy Garland [1922-69]

"You can’t argue with saw dust."
~~ Jerry Bennett of Georgia USA, on Facebook

"The giving of love is an education in itself."
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

“Skeptics warned me: 'The U.S has no friends, only interests' ... Now it turns out that the pessimists were right. I was wrong.”
~~ Ilham Ahmed, co-president of the Democratic Council of Syria

"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]

"TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!"
~~ popularized by sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]

funny 'found text' t-shirts:
as seen on TV (red logo)
another one: PERSON OF INTEREST
and another: built (FORD logo) tough
Error 404: This t-shirt cannot be displayed
t-shirt not responding due to a long-running script

"When it shall be said, in any country in the world, my people are happy, my jails are empty, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive . . . then may that country boast of its constitution and government."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]

"Hate is not a solution to anything, except for lowlifes who need someone to oppress (so they can at least not be bottom of the barrel)."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"I would rather take the chance and lose than to admit to myself that I didn't have the courage to try. I'd rather make a hundred mistakes, and take the consequences for every one, than to grovel in the dirt because fear had its foot on my neck."
~~ Errol Flynn [1909-59]

"The whole truth pure and simple? The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"Years ago, fairy tales all began with 'Once upon a time' . . . now we know [that] they all begin with, 'If I am elected'."
~~ Carolyn Warner

"Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it."
~~ Alexander Dumas, fils [1824-95]

"I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale."
~~ Nobel-laureate physicist Marie Curie [1867-1934]

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
~~ C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]

"Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]

"Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against, not with the wind."
~~ Hamilton W. Mabie [1846-1916]

"The destruction of the information system ... is a technique of propaganda that’s extremely effective. It’s working, and the effects are lethal."
~~ philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky

"Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]

"Love truth, and pardon error."
~~ French philosopher Voltaire [1694-1778]

"I want the old Swamp back because this Trump Swamp is stinking it up now really badly."
~~ Abel Rodriguez, on Facebook

"George Washington could not tell a lie. Richard Nixon could not tell the truth. Donald Trump cannot tell the difference."
~~ 'SW', in the Albuquerque Journal Sound Off! opinion section

"The only security of all is in a free press."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826], in 1823

"Another day, another shooting in the U.S."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, reporter at the Boston Globe

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
~~ Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord [1754–1838]

"Anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable."
~~ Margaret McFarland [1905-88], lifelong collaborator of children's TV host Fred 'Mister' Rogers [1928-2003]

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Please Pass This On To Nancy Pelosi

Please pass this on to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in any way that you can:

After the House votes to approve Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump

DO NOT hand them as a gift to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

INSTEAD

Hold a press conference and tell Moscow Mitch that he has to release ALL 400-plus House bills
that he is blocking from being voted on in the Senate
and that AFTER all are voted on THEN the House will forward the Articles of Impeachment -

with the explicit threat that if McConnell does not do so by year-end
then the Articles of Impeachment will be handed to the new Democratic Senate on 2 January 2021.

News Factoids for Third Quarter 2019

U.S. importers paid $6 billion in tariffs in June, a 74% jump compared to a year ago, despite a slight decline in the value of imports. And $3.4 billion of that total came from tariffs imposed by President Trump.

U.S. annually uses 388 million pounds of potentially fatal pesticides that are banned in the EU, China, and Brazil.

293.6 billion: Number of emails that are sent per day worldwide.
80%: share of global spam emails sent by 'a hard-core group of around 100 known persistent spam gangs'.

$84: approximate annual revenue Google makes on advertising per Gmail user.

2017 marked the first year that firearms killed more people than car accidents.
~~ per The Hill political newsblog, 9/2019

The bottom 90 percent of working-age households are poorer than they were in 2007.

Wealth of the top 10% bracket is UP 11 percent; wealth of the 61-90% bracket is down 17 percent; wealth of the middle class 31-60% bracket is down 35 percent; and the wealth of the bottom 30% is down 31 percent.
~~ per the U.S. Federal Reserve, September 2018

"The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble and that means we're all in big trouble, too. The changes are accelerating." ~~~ Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences & international affairs at Princeton University

“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, we can’t eat money, or drink oil.”
~~ Indigenous teen water protector Autumn Peltier addressing the United Nations General Assembly, 9/2019

Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to lend Greta Thunberg an electric car if she wanted; she accepted the offer and she and her father drove it to the Fridays For Future rally in Montreal, Canada where she spoke.

"We are the change and change is coming."
~~ Greta Thunberg, at the end of her speech in Montreal, Canada on Friday 9/27/2019

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

August 2019 Quotations (55)

"Donald Trump's overt racism is a high crime and not a misdemeanor."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Behind every cloud is another cloud."
~~ entertainer Judy Garland [1922-69]

"I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things."
~~ George Gissing [1857-1903]

"The goal of art is to create conscience."
~~ T-Bone Burnett

"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."
~~ Langston Hughes [1902-67]

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
~~ country music performer Dolly Parton

"The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling."
~~ Roman poet Titus Lucretius Carus [99-55 B.C.E.]

"Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots."
~~ Frank A. Clark [1860-1936]

'found text' for back of t-shirt: upgrade cost may apply

"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy."
~~ Benito Mussolini [1883-1945]

"Medicine would be the ideal profession if it did not involve giving pain."
~~ Samuel Hopkins Adams [1871-1958], in "The Health Master" [1913]

"Those that don't got it, can't show it. Those that got it, can't hide it."
~~ writer Zora Neale Hurston [1891-1960]

"There are many people who don`t know what real pressure is. Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."
~~ football coach Barry Switzer

"Like the genie in the bottle, machines will in no way be obliged to make such decisions as we should have made . . ."
~~ mathematician & philosopher Norbert Wiener [1894-1964]

"Think nothing of me — take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

"Writing is my craft. I honor it deeply. To have a craft, to be able to work at it, is to be honored by it."
~~ sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018]

"It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something [that] the best people have always done."
~~ Harriet Beecher Stowe [1811-96]

"Never confuse movement with action."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"The only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths."
~~ Paul K. Feyerabend [1924-94]

"Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue."
~~ Woody Allen

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"Donald Trump deserves no respect because he respects no one, not even himself."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Politics is like shoes. There's a left and a right, but eventually you will want to go barefoot."
~~ Jean-Luc Godard

"Flip the White House [in] 2020. The planet depends upon it."
~~ Monica Ballard, on Facebook

"America is a tune. It must be sung together."
~~ Gerald Stanley Lee [1862-1944]

"Plant trees. Plant lots of trees."
~~ ending credits of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" [2006]

"This feels like a turning point in our country: When there are no repercussions for racism, what's next?"
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer

"To live effectively is to live with adequate information."
~~ mathematician & philosopher Norbert Wiener [1894-1964]

"The evil of FoxNews is breathtaking."
~~ Loren Chapman [1927-2017]

"Information is information, not matter or energy."
~~ mathematician & philosopher Norbert Wiener [1894-1964] in "Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication In The Animal and The Machine" [1948]

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
~~ Franklin D. Roosevelt [1882-1945]

"There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless."
~~ playwright Wilson Mizner [1876-1933]

"A bad oyster, like a bad marriage, is not known until too late."
~~ Old Farmer's Almanac

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently."
~~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky [1821-81]

"Trump is making America hate again . . . this is Trumpville, where the truth goes to die."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking."
~~ Gen. George Smith Patton, Jr. [1885-1945]

"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all [that] I can borrow."
~~ Woodrow Wilson [1856-1924]

"It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word."
~~ Andrew Jackson [1767–1845]

"Word-work is sublime . . . because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference – the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."
~~ author Toni Morrison [1931-2019], in her Nobel lecture in 1993

"Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at."
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

"Tucker Carlson’s claim that white supremacy is a hoax is easy to prove wrong. Just watch his show."
~~ journalist Margaret M. Sullivan

"There are three kinds of people in the universe. Those who can count, and those who
can't . . ." ~~ bumper sticker

"There can be no justice without peace, and there can be no peace without justice.”
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

"It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning."
~~ Gene Roddenberry [1921-91]

"It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate."
~~ James A. Baldwin [1924-87]

"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know."
~~ Judge Murray Gurfein [1907-79] - Pentagon Papers decision, 17 June 1971

"When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It's only difficult for others. It's the same way when you're stupid."
~~ actor Ricky Gervais

"I decline utterly to be impartial between the fire brigade and the fire."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]

"Dare to be naïve."
~~ visionary R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]

"Not all capes wear heroes."
~~ Dr. Stephen Strange (fictional character from Marvel Comics)

"Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other."
~~ Oscar Ameringer [1870-1943]

"For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."
~~ social reformer Frederick Douglass [1818-95], on 4 July 1852

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Koch Industries gets caught again

Koch Foods lost a sexual and racial harassment EEOC class-action lawsuit by employees last year and had to pay out $3.75 million. The recent 680 arrests by ICE & CBP at one of the Koch Foods chicken processing plants in Mississippi targeted immigrant workers who organized unions, fought back against discrimination, or challenged unsafe & unsanitary conditions. Labor problems in Trump's America are solved speedily and efficiently asking ICE/CBP to round up the workers and deport them. The Trump administration is helping Nazis terrorize immigrants in their homes and streets as well as in the work place.

Does this make you feel safer?

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

News Factoids for Second Quarter 2019 {this is Post #450}

Measles cases in the U.S. surged to the second highest level in 2 decades. Reported measles cases jumped by nearly 100 in april, pushing the total recorded in 19 states to 555 this year. That's the second highest total, after the 667 recorded in 2014, since the U.S. declared measles eliminated in the country nearly two decades ago. There were 372 cases last year.

A government report released in April said that over 18 months time in 2016 and 2017, 152 overdose deaths involving kratom were reported in the United States, with kratom as the primary overdose agent in 91 of the deaths. Mitragyna speciosa (commonly known as kratom) is a tropical evergreen tree.

A draft United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services says that up to 1 million species face extinction, many within decades, as a result of human influence. The report, obtained by Agence France-Presse, said that deforestation has led to the loss of greenhouse gas-absorbing trees, polluted waters are killing protein-rich fish, and pollinating insects are dying rapidly. The pace of species loss is 'tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years', report says. The causes are shrinking habitats, hunting & poaching, climate change, pollution, and invasive species – all of which can be traced to human activity.

A double survey several days after the release of the redacted Mueller Report reveals that viewers of Fox Faux News are split: 75% believe Emperor Trump and 25% believe Mueller; viewers of CNN are also split: 75% believe Mueller and 25% believe Emperor Trump. Since Robert Mueller is a man of great honor and there is no reason to dis-believe anything in his historic report, this factoid is clear proof that Fox is all propaganda and that its propaganda works.

About 68 percent of U.S. adults use Facebook, far more than the number who use Instagram or WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook). Among these Facebook users, about three-quarters of them visit the site daily. As of last year, according to Pew, a little more than half of kids ages 13 to 17 reported using Facebook.

The United States annually uses 388 million pounds of potentially fatal pesticides that are banned in the EU, China and Brazil.

ICYMI: Robert Mueller will testify to Congress on July 17th, to a House Committee and to a Senate Committee on the same day; both will be closed to the public, and transcripts of each session are expected to be made public a few days later.

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

June 2019 Quotations (51)

"I don't believe that laughter is the best medicine. Actually, medicine is the best medicine. But I think that having a good sense of humor about Life is really important."
~~ comedian Ken Jeong, MD

"Sometimes . . . my greatest accomplishment is keeping my mouth shut."
~~ Winnie The Pooh

"The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent . . . However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."
~~ cinema master Stanley Kubrick [1928-99]

"Every move [that] Mitch McConnell, the President, and the Republicans make is cruel."
~~ author Charlie Steel

"Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened."
~~ Anatole France [1844-1924]

"If you want to succeed, strike out on new paths – rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success."
~~ oil baron John D. Rockefeller [1839-1937]

"Some of the most important battles aren’t necessarily the ones that will be won in your lifetime."
~~ Stewart Udall [1920-2010]

"Art is not supposed to be easier! There are a lot of things in life that are supposed to be easier . . . but not Art. Art should always be tough. Art should demand something of you. Art should involve foot-pounds of energy being expended."
~~ Harlan Ellison [1934-2018]

"One result of [today's] programming pandemic is that we are losing the ability to discern fact from fiction. Another result is that large segments of our societies are subjects of mass hypnosis."
~~ T-Bone Burnett, in keynote speech at SXSW 2019

Power generation from wind turbines is thriving in New Mexico because Arizona blows and Texas sucks.

"Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents - choice, not chance, determines your destiny."
~~ Greek philosopher Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]

"We'll free every slave in every town and region. Can anybody get a bigger army than that?"
~~ line in the movie "Spartacus" [1960]

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
~~ Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519]

"Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself."
~~ Persian poet & mystic Rumi [1207-73]

"A cold beer at the end of the day is the best thing life has to offer."
~~ Haruki Murakami, in "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" [1994-95]

"There’s nothing I want people to learn from me. It’s what you discover for yourself that makes it powerful."
~~ philosopher Werner Erhard

"Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything."
~~ Napoleon Hill [1883-1970]

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."
~~ Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519]

"Only two things certain under this administration: death (for the little people) and tax cuts (for the rich)."
~~ Paul Krugman

"I fought for a radical cinema, and I continued all my life."
~~ Agnès Varda [1928-2019]

"Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl."
~~ Benjamin Jowett [1817-93]

"We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge."
~~ John Naisbitt

"Capitalism is more important than democracy."
~~ Stephen Moore, senior economic adviser to the Trump campaign, 2018

"Machines, though helpless by themselves, may be used by a human being or [by] a block of human beings to increase their control over the rest of the human race."
~~ Norbert Wiener [1894-1964]

"Men have become the tools of their tools."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62] in 1854

"Mass incarceration is a form of voter suppression."
~~ Georgia Parke

"Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
~~ Colin Powell

"To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when no one else will."
~~ boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson [1921-89]

"Donald Trump and William Barr have set America on the road to tyranny.”
~~ Hillary Rodham Clinton

"The most heroic word in all languages is 'revolution'."
~~ Eugene V. Debs [1855-1926]

"Put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success."
~~ Swami Sivananda [1887-1963]

"Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others."
~~ Roy T. Bennett

"I believe in the idea of the rainbow, and I've spent my entire life trying to get over it."
~~ entertainer Judy Garland [1922-69]

"It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones."
~~ Nelson Mandela [1918-2013]

"The criminal ineptitude [after Hurricane Katrina] makes you furious."
~~ rock music legend Bruce Springsteen

"We will never have peace in the world until women take power."
~~ Coretta Scott King [1927-2006]

"Wisdom is everything! It makes one a slave to the truth."
~~ Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr.

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
~~ Dr. Seuss {Theodor Geisel 1904-91}

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."
~~ John Lennon [1940-80]

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."
~~ William Shakespeare [1564-1616]

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."
~~ art critic John Ruskin [1819-1900]

another 'found text' for back of T-shirt: HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED

"The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman's life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices."
~~ Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"What matters above all in a work of art is the vital depth of which it may have sprung."
~~ author James Joyce [1882-1941]

"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."
~~ music legend Bob Dylan

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
~~ Søren Kierkegaard [1813-55]

"The world tells you to follow your dreams.
But Buddhism will tell you to wake up."
~~ Chamtrul Rinpoche of Tibet

"When you have a situation where the wealthiest family in America ... has $174 billion in wealth, it is really absurd and unacceptable that they are paying their workers starvation wages."
~~ Sen. Bernie Sanders about Wal-Mart 6/2019

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Another Letter Printed in the Local Newspaper

HEADLINE: The pro-life movement is based on lies

I am male, so the storm surrounding abortion, women’s rights, safe health care procedures, and pseudo-Xian pro-life people has not required me to have an opinion or speak to any of the issues.

There are plenty of issues that I am adamant about. That said, I am very pro-choice and demand equal rights for all, and, in fact, repeat my own philosophical statements whenever they seem to apply.

“I have the same rights that you do, the same rights that I afford you. We each have only the collective rights given to all,” and, “Rights only exist when they apply to everyone. When only some people are accorded a so-called ‘right’, then it is privilege and subjugation.”

But I decided that I need to speak up on the issue because I stumbled upon the so-called truth of the matter.

I am opposed to all religions, and the larger disease of magical thinking. But it turns out that the fundamentalist Xian claim that their non-existent godhead defines the life of a fetus from conception, or more recently, at the first heartbeat, is categorically not true.

The Judeo-Xian Bible clearly states that life begins when you take your first breath of air.


Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and [the] man became a living soul.”

Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Ezekiel 37:5-6: “Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.”


I don’t have to believe any of this, nor do you. But when pseudo-Xians make claims based on the word of God, they had better be accurate when they do so. It is quite telling that after all these years of back-and-forth, I would stumble upon actual facts in the matter at this late date.

Other cited verses found in my research are just plain off the mark, and only a propagandist could twist the texts cited by the pro-life leaders, and re-quoted by their teeming mob of followers, into actually specifying the magic moment when life occurs.

So I am posting this factual ammunition for use by any pro-choice readers to fling in the face of these false pro-lifer misogynist hate-mongers – they won’t listen, of course, but the battle must be fought.

Another of my sayings that applies here is, “The use of force is proof of the absence of reason.”

G.E. Nordell
Rio Communities
Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Reasoned Comment on Mexico Tariffs

Folks here in Albuquerque, New Mexico are in a panic about the idiot (and unconstitutional) tariffs levied by Emperor Trump on imported goods from Mexico. The most common comment is 'OMG what will Chipotle Restaurants do? they'll have to shut down!'.

ROFL: While these tariffs will have an adverse effect on consumer prices, the impact is not likely to change anybody's lifestyle. However much Chipotle - and all the other Southwest or Italian dining establishments here - use imported avocado and tomato as ingredients, the Trump Tax on them is on the *wholesale price*, which even at the final 25% tariff in five months, will barely amount to TEN CENTS per whole avocado and even less per whole tomato. The tariffs on Mexico and China are really not money-makers, not for the U.S. Treasury, not for anybody.

If Chipotle or the other restaurants feel the need to raise prices, they don't even have to reprint all their menus for this temporary insanity: get stickers printed and put one on each menu that says 'Prices on some food items may be temporarily increased a few pennies during the Trump Tax tariffs". Then change the computer to show which menu items get the teeny increase, and print a new summary line on the bill for the meal that reads "Trump Tax Tariff is only 12¢' (or whatever).

Trump and his obedient servants want you to panic so that you will not notice that they are manipulating the international situation to start World War III or Armageddon with Iran or China or even Turkey. War profiteering is the money-maker, guys.

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

My Letter Printed in the Local Newspaper

HEADLINE: Time to take a stand

The racist pinheads who flew the Confederate/K.K.K. flag in the Fourth of July parade last year are still among us. There is still time to do something to prevent a recurrence this year or in future.

Very simple law: The public display of the Confederate/K.K.K. flag or any of its many variants is racist and a hate crime under local and federal law. There should be a sizeable fine for the first offense, some amount bigger than a speeding ticket.

But our local officials have neither the integrity nor the cojones to stand up against such fear-mongering.

As Nelson Mandela often said, if you are not taking action in opposition to inhumane policies and practices, then you are complicit in their existence.

July is fast approaching.

G.E. Nordell
Rio Communities, NM
Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

HA! A SMALL MIRACLE

Drove the 40 miles up to the Albuquerque V.A. Medical Center last month for my fourth session of experimental acupuncture, which seems to produce a wonderful effect. After that, I decided to mosey up San Mateo to Jack-in-the-Box (don't often get to Jack's cuz there are none in Valencia County).

After ordering my sandwich, I set my drink on the table and noticed that Congresswoman Deb Haaland was seated at the other end of the room. So I walked over to say hello.

(Fear did not even occur to me since I have practiced Landmark Education's technology for forty years now, including SELP, TMLP, the Six-Day Course, and the Communications Curriculum.)

She was with two staff members and they all asked nice questions, and I responded about my longterm Reason-Based Taxation project. One said that he remembered the document and named two workers who were assigned to look into it.

They walked away with a positive conversation from a non-constituent (I'm in District 2) and a reminder about Reason-Based Taxation; what I walked away with was on overt invitation to come in to the office in Downtown Albuquerque to have a deeper conversation on the matter.

Not a miracle? There are 2.1 million residents in New Mexico. What are the odds that Deb Haaland and I would choose the exact same restaurant for lunch?

http://www.ReasonBasedTaxation.info/

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

HERE'S THE PLAN, GUYS !!

If the facts warrant (which seems to be the case), House Democrats should go ahead and impeach Donald Trump for his crimes. This is necessary to set the record straight, so that history will know that the Democratic Party fiercely defended the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

So okay, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will prevent any action to convict. But when the Democratic presidential candidate wins the 2020 election, we might just also turn the Senate BLUE, and the new Senate leaders will be able to set up a vote to convict Trump. (And we don't have to worry about President Pence!)

Let's see how much traction we can get on this: post, tweet, share, email, and tell your friends and enemies.

You have nothing to lose but your chains.

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Yoda says so . . .

RECIPE/INVENTION OF THE MONTH: Breakfast Sushi

My local Albertsons grocery store made lots of changes after they were sold to a retail conglomerate in Texas last year, including adding a Starbucks stand and a small fresh sushi stand in the Service Deli section. Sushi always costs a lot, probably due to the labor involved, so I have been buying one only on Albertsons's Senior Discount (10% off!) Day each month. The California Roll is the cheapest, and the ten little roll things make two meals.

But that gets kinda boring, even with wasabi and ginger and a packet of soy sauce. So I looked at what else the two workers/franchisees could make, and came up with New Mexico Breakfast Sushi.

There would be slices of fried egg (whipped up with some cream, like an omelette), bacon or sausage, cheddar cheese, maybe a green onion slice, and the usual rice wrapped up in the seaweed. To make it truly New Mexican, they could offer either the plain version or a set with Hatch green chile™ - inside, not as a salsa. No wasabi, no ginger, no soy sauce - but it's gotta have two packets of ketchup in the box!

So next time I go food shopping I will speak to the two franchisees and see if I can enroll them in dangerous activity such as innovation . . .

Copyright 2019 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved