Nothing to do with anything he said. We are Norwegian decedents and teachers and started the revival of this significant symbol of resistance that helped in part demoralize the Germans occupying Norway. 🇳🇴
The ordinary expectation, the one written into the architecture of a representative government, is that citizens can know what their government is doing well enough to hold it accountable at the next election. A federal employee nondisclosure mandate does not merely restrict speech; it severs the informational chain that connects a government action to the voter who will eventually ratify or reject it. Don Moynihan's framing is precise: it eliminates the public's ability to know what its government is doing. The people who are governed by those actions remain governed by them whether or not they can see them, and that is not a partisan concern, but a structural one. It applies regardless of which party controls the agency behind the NDA.
I was a civil servant for 20 years and I was bound by our Official Secrets Acts. I would imagine that you have something similar. This goes far beyond that. All governments want to control communications with the public and we know that Trump is more exasperated with the news media than other presidents have been - his criticism is relentless. I am not sure how effective this NDA proposal will be since so far I am not aware that the government has been successful in identifying leakers, probably because there are so many of them. At least two departments were using polygraph tests.
It is also counter-productive since it will mean more federal staff will resign damaging the competence and efficiency of government. For example, already over 10,000 STEM Ph.Ds have left the government; and the DoJ has already lost a quarter of its attorneys (3,400), 4,000 law enforcement staff (including 2,600 FBI employees), the National Security Division has lost 38% of its staff.
Tempertantrump thoroughly enjoyed Covid-19. It allowed him to divert attention from his failing government and he and his friends made lots of money. Stay in place/work from home was a bonus. Almost complete control. This is round two.
US T? this is not just round two...it's ALL the rounds. it's, as many here realize, an 'historical' time...not some 'day to day' events...condensed...and critical...it's the whole enchilada/bag of beans...
it will be studied in schools no matter WHO comes out on top...please do what you can(i haven't lived there in 25+ yrs) to make sure maga is cast out...it's not JUST the US that's at stake, as i'm sure many of you ALso realize...
especially when Trump gets off on threatening anyone he takes a fancy to doing so with...
i'm concerned that, if the US falls(and it's at least halfway there already. Trump cancels the midterms and it's game over, pretty much), Europe will become a US/Russia sandwich...
Isaac...Think fresh meat between moldy white bread on one side and dried-out rye on the other. You and I have shared foresight, but I believe it will birth a new European renaissance, Canada of course included. And it's in planetary-hegemon China's far greater socioeconomic interest to maintain the peace than to unleash its Russian vassals, in turn allowing Russia to un-bottle its "Unified Reich" ChristoNazi warslime.
(Me? I am not especially troubled by the notion of China as world emperor; after all, their nation, including in its imperial forms, has been around about twice as long as the governments of global elsewhere and has institutional memory of its entire span. Also, I recognized the superiority of their metaphysics before I knew such knowledge existed in formalized form. [I don't pretend to understand how this happened. Despite my urban origins, the essence of that knowledge was originally taught me -- mostly wordlessly -- during seasonal interludes amidst genuine wilderness, typically on the glass-clear waters of some troutly river, creek or pond therein].)
i, too, like your anagram, Jean...but i think it might be more effective if people concentrated on what to do to make sure a) the nov election HAPpens and b) that a VERY clear message is sent...what 'they' do/have done...it's a shame that you all have to live with it(as well as the effect it's had/having globally. but 'they' DO have to live with the results as well...and i don't know how America isn't going bankrupt with Trump spending a billion on this and billions on that...
i DO know that much of maga was very dependent on some of the food programs, as well as reasonable medical insurance...
i'm not happy with ANYone's suffering...it drags us ALL down...
pull together and show them what you're all capable of....please.
One lecture of the “Save America Thinker’s Conference” will be:
‘A Study of the History of Tommy Douglas’ < Canadian responsible for Universal Healthcare for ALL Canadians’.
The USA CAN have free healthcare by studying Canadian history. We did not become ‘communist’ to put in place a Healthcare System the envy of many other nations.
It is my wish that before I die, my family and friends in the USA WILL have this human right along with TRUE equality for all races and genders.
TOO LONG A WAIT ALREADY for the PROMISE that was ‘America’!
Nova Scotia: Home of the former “Pugwash Thinker’s Conferences” at the Cyrus Eaton Estate.
Time to revive these! Discussion is the antidote for ‘war-mongering’…but PLEASE don’t consider inviting Trump! There isn’t time for him to learn: to speak, not swear, stick to the truth and STAY AWAKE. 😆
My Scots paternal grandmother, the late Marion Wilena Dewar, came from Nova Scotia; her first husband, my English paternal grandfather, the late Amos Read Bliss, a civil engineer who was one of the founding inventors of the automotive industry, was from New Brunswick. Thus by act of parliament I am entitled to Canadian citizenship, and as I am terminally ill with CHF, I am hoping to achieve that before I exit.
it's always good hearing from you, Loren...even when you're not responding to ME...
your comment about the sandwich made me laugh...thanks. and i haven't really thought about how 'the (major league political powers) stars will align...but what you said makes a LOT of sense to me...i don't understand how your comment didn't wind up here...in FACT...it was too good to keep to myself...so i'm going to open up another tab, grab it from there and paste it here...btw...this next part was how i began responding but thought i'd lost it switching over to THIS new tab...too complicated for MY skills, so i hope it makes sense...but yeah...first up will be the first response to your comment...
this is weird...when i clicked on what you wrote me(moldy, etc), i wound up HERE. and it's not the same comment...so now i'm going to have to go back and forth to see if there's anything for me to respond to...
but the reason i'm glad to be responding is...i really appreciate you, Loren...that sandwich comment made me laugh, first off...and when i see you posting somewhere it makes me glad, as well...as cutting as some of your remarks have been, i still thought they were a)brave and b) RIGHT on the money...so thanks. for ALL of that...
and, as any of my few friends would be happy to tell you, i don't kiss ass/tell lies.
okay...and NOW your initial response...
Isaac...Think fresh meat between moldy white bread on one side and dried-out rye on the other. You and I have shared foresight, but I believe it will birth a new European renaissance, Canada of course included. And it's in planetary-hegemon China's far greater socioeconomic interest to maintain the peace than to unleash its Russian vassals, in turn allowing Russia to un-bottle its "Unified Reich" ChristoNazi warslime. (Me? I am not especially troubled by the notion of China as world emperor; after all, their nation, including in its imperial forms, has been around about twice as long as the governments of global elsewhere and has institutional memory of its entire span. Also, I recognized the superiority of their metaphysics before I knew such knowledge existed in formalized form. [I don't pretend to understand how this happened. Despite my urban origins, the essence of that knowledge was originally taught me -- mostly wordlessly -- during seasonal interludes amidst genuine wilderness, typically on the glass-clear waters of some troutly river, creek or pond therein].)
as for the shared foresight, you have no idea how surprised i was when you began speaking about chinese wisdom/philosophy/metaphysics...EYE was very much drawn to that, as well...in my late teens(late 60s). a few years later i met Alan Watts, in fact. and maybe i'll write you a PM to tell you that story...very weird, how it happened...
wow...all that seems like lifetimes ago, though i KNOW it had a lot of influence on my 'development'...
and yes, i'm not at all afraid of China coming into power...it wouldn't be in their interest to dictate...or take sides with Russia...at least that's the way it seems to me...
for the exact reasons you stated...poor socioeconomic choice...better to incorporate(i love that word...in corpus) (ate ; - ) than to overthrow/dominate...
a 'reverse 51st state'...if that makes any sense...
but, of course, one major step at a time...we have to hold our own, hopefully, in the next...wow...i WAS going to say FIVE months...but now it's more like 4...
another thing, btw, i've valued for a while is chinese medicine...i've read up on it some and it made a lot of sense to me...i'm a retired nurse, btw...a paramedic before that...
dual 'careers'...that and a musician...good balance for me...i had to abandon my license when leaving California, much less the states...but i was lucky enough to find work here(the NL) working with the handicapped, eventually...and i loved my work...both 'jobs' never felt like jobs...
ok...i don't want to make this TOO long...always good to see your name/hear from you...thanks for taking the time...and 'happy trouting', when and if...
Thank you, Isaac, for the detailed response. You got the comment in two pieces because I deleted it to add three video links to the sandwich metaphor -- examples of what the Russians and their Trumpian cesspool buddies would bite into were they overcome by their hunger for apocalypse -- but was then interrupted by a phone call so long I re-posted the comment without the links, which would have been quick glimpses of rapidly rearming British, French and German militaries.
Thank you especially for the "happy trouting"; alas, my outdoor days are ended (save for when I wheelchair out into our courtyard gardens), but always happy, sometimes ecstatic trouting was most assuredly my lot, and reviewing the memories always make me smile. Caught my first three -- a rainbow, a German brown and an unusually large (12 inch) native brookie from the South Branch of Michigan's Au Sable River in 1947 -- I was seven years old -- and this was when those waters were still legendary for their productivity. Fished there (where I also met the first two loves of my life) and Appalachian Tennessee's North River and Citico Creek through my teenage summers; fished less memorable waters in rural NY and NJ as a young adult; then resumed trout fishing as a genuine religious experience in the Cascade wilderness waters of western Washington state. My biggest trout ever, a 5.5-pound, 22-inch native (delicious salmon-pink flesh) rainbow caught on a Mepps spinner, came from the Middle Fork of the Nooksack, though I lost a much bigger rainbow, probably 27 or 28 inches and I'd guess close to ten pounds, fishing the Nooksack's South Fork near its back-country headwaters. That fish too was on a Mepps spinner, and I battled its exquisitely beautiful leaping, running self until it threw the hook and slid with triumphant flip of tail back into the dark depths of the pool where it lived.
i was JUST about to push the reply button when i noticed i was going to reply to the wrong post. i wanted to read yours again...i think the closest i've ever come to your river experiences was back in 74/75...tubing the verde/salt rivers near Phoenix, Az...one of my most memorable 'picture postcard memories' happened there...the limestone cliffs near the dam...with a crescent moon rising above them in the evening light...damn, the dam's broken open, it would seem... ; - )
so here's what i almost posted in the wrong place...
oh GREAT! like i NEED anyone confusing me any more than i sometimes AM... ; - )
i'm laughing as i type...
i don't know, aside from one time when i was...13?, that i've ever been fishing in my life, Loren...oh no, WAIT! my uncle Morris had a boat and we went out...my father, him and a few more adults, though i don't remember who they were now...they were catching a bunch of fish and putting them into a net in the back of the boat...
i remember them hauling in a crab that had pincered one of their lines...when it landed on the deck, my uncle stabbed it and threw it overboard...i didn't like that. i couldn't have been more than 8 yo...so...i surreptiously untied the net and away it went... ; - ) the BEST part, though, was that my uncle jumped IN, clothes and all, to retrieve it...that's how i knew he was nuts...but a GOOD, Brooklyn/having been in WWII kinda crazy...he was a good man...dropped dead of a heart attack when i was a teenager...he was one of the only of my father's relatives that i liked....7 brothers, two sisters...
MY experience was with a friend...at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn...TOtally clueless as to what we were doing...i KNEW we needed some sort of bait...so get this...i go and buy a chinese SHRIMP roll...kind of like an egg roll...figuring, 'well EYE like shrimp...maybe the fish will, too...believe it or don't, we didn't catch any fish...
and i haven't thought of EITHER of these stories in at LEAST 60 yrs...so thanks for letting ME revisit them...i'm still laughing thinking about those...
sounds like you've had quite the life, Loren...i'm happy for you...i'm a city kid... the love for silence is a recent development for me...that, and realizing how NOIsy people are, in general...and i'm not even TALKing about their machines/ toys...
so i can now, finally understand how wonderful what you described might be... took long enough...but better these recent years than not at all...
I too was born in Brooklyn and am in essence an urbanite, though my father's impassioned commitment to the war effort moved us out of the City and into the grotesques of the South shortly before I turned four. Also, the very best years of my journalistic life and my political education were in Manhattan and urban North Jersey. But my spiritual life, its spontaneous perceptions unabashedly pagan, didn't come awake until I was in deep country, which initially was the legacy of my maternal grandparents and a maternal great-grandfather who was one of the heroes at Gettysburg. Hence my life-path has been a passage almost schizoid in its essential alterations between urban/(professionalism) and rural/(spirituality). One of the elements of ChristoNazism I find so violently inappropriate is that if one has any intimacy with Nature, discovering the theocrats' obscene dominance in rural America is akin to finding a rotting rodent beneath the chocolate icing of one's birthday cake.
while you use the word 'schizoid', implying a schism, Loren, i see it as yin/yang...and though some might disagree, i see you as pretty well balanced...
my American history doesn't go back very far at all...(Brooklyn)father's father/paternal grandfather was from Syria. my mother was born and raised in Cuba(where i was for a bit, pre Fidel). HER mother was from Turkey...
EYE? i came, i saw and i left... ; - ) just the racism aLONE was a good reason for me...but, as you understand, there is soooooo much more that is in need of repair...
which may be the best part of this new American 'fracture'...the opportunity for change...that's my hope, of course...
The ‘Childish Prattle’ which identifies the speech of POTUS #47 continues to be ‘broadcast’…WHY?.?.?
Surely there is a ‘minimum’ STANDARD for any national broadcasting regulations that Trump’s potty mouth, and degrading-of-others way of speaking disqualifies it from being broadcast!
‘HATE SPEECH’ (prejudicial of race, nationality, and religion) is SUPPOSÉDLY ‘A CRIME’. Or, it used to be. 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♂️
How is being voted into a top position in the government a reason to look the other way, and NOT HEAR Donald Trump malign, slander, and THREATEN anyone he HATES, simply because SCOTUS is now CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT = 6 Justices with “0” integrity and 100% loyalty to the Dictator they now FEAR!
All bets are off in TEXAS and any other state Trump can infect with his mafioso tactics.
Marches are important - for morale - but not as effective as getting in the face of friends and relatives who still think Trump has something to offer THEM…at the expense of MANY OTHERS. 👎👎👎
If you truly want your COUNTRY BACK, then search the iron-clad tenets of the Constitution, and then BE PREPARED TO ENFORCE THEM. 💪
Trump’s use of ANY branch of the military for what he is now doing IS ILLEGAL!(tenet #92)
Trump’s expensive ego-stroking at the deficit of other national institutions >>> ILLEGAL!
Trump’s DAILY slanderous messages and AI Videos SHOULD BE >>> ILLEGAL!
Trump’s existence in the political arena while mentally ill, a TRAVESTY…AND…
>>>’CRUELTY TO A DUMB ANIMAL’ if ever that was the case.
T is nothing to me. I now see him on TV and simply turn the channel. If, everyone would start saying, “You are nothing .” Or, “Such a fake person.” He would fall apart , I the wizard of Oz. Maybe we should all, on whatever social media platform you are on, simply block him.
The ordinary expectation, the one written into the architecture of a representative government, is that citizens can know what their government is doing well enough to hold it accountable at the next election. A federal employee nondisclosure mandate does not merely restrict speech; it severs the informational chain that connects a government action to the voter who will eventually ratify or reject it. Don Moynihan's framing is precise: it eliminates the public's ability to know what its government is doing. The people who are governed by those actions remain governed by them whether or not they can see them, and that is not a partisan concern, but a structural one. It applies regardless of which party controls the agency behind the NDA.
Thank you again for your siren call for justice and keeping what is going on in DC at the forefront.
I wish someone would do a podcast themed on the hangings of young black people (and worse) still going on here in the south. I cannot be any more shocked and will never be desensitized to the ongoing horrors being inflicted because of such deep seated racism. It blows my mind.
There’s a saying “generals are always fighting the last war”. Meaning that they are fighting with outdated weapons. That is certainly the case with Trump shooting down $30k drones with multi-million dollar missiles.
Worse is the obsession with Irans nuclear material when Iran could potentially ruin the U.S. by simply using AI software. This is not just hypothetical! AI developers have been concerned about this possibilities for years. Consider what the impact of crippling our trucking, shipping and/or telecommunications systems would be. We depend upon completely on shipping for food for example.
What did I miss?? How in the world did the two political parties belief systems get "reversed" with values previously held by Republicans, now being embraced and supported by Democrats?
The people must smash Trump and the MAGAts. Let’s keep protesting in the streets. Here is a no kings anthem we can sing together: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-kings-anthem
Tomorrow is NATIONAL PAPERCLIP DAY🖇️♥️🙏Wear a paperclip in solidarity showing your resistance everywhere you go 🖇️♥️🖇️www.thepaperclipresistance.com
Does this have something to do with Trump's recent paperclip anecdote?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/trump-rambles-about-paperclips-in-historically-inaccurate-anecdote/ar-AA1Zenyk
Nothing to do with anything he said. We are Norwegian decedents and teachers and started the revival of this significant symbol of resistance that helped in part demoralize the Germans occupying Norway. 🇳🇴
The ordinary expectation, the one written into the architecture of a representative government, is that citizens can know what their government is doing well enough to hold it accountable at the next election. A federal employee nondisclosure mandate does not merely restrict speech; it severs the informational chain that connects a government action to the voter who will eventually ratify or reject it. Don Moynihan's framing is precise: it eliminates the public's ability to know what its government is doing. The people who are governed by those actions remain governed by them whether or not they can see them, and that is not a partisan concern, but a structural one. It applies regardless of which party controls the agency behind the NDA.
I was a civil servant for 20 years and I was bound by our Official Secrets Acts. I would imagine that you have something similar. This goes far beyond that. All governments want to control communications with the public and we know that Trump is more exasperated with the news media than other presidents have been - his criticism is relentless. I am not sure how effective this NDA proposal will be since so far I am not aware that the government has been successful in identifying leakers, probably because there are so many of them. At least two departments were using polygraph tests.
It is also counter-productive since it will mean more federal staff will resign damaging the competence and efficiency of government. For example, already over 10,000 STEM Ph.Ds have left the government; and the DoJ has already lost a quarter of its attorneys (3,400), 4,000 law enforcement staff (including 2,600 FBI employees), the National Security Division has lost 38% of its staff.
nicely stated, Civik. thank you.
Heather's posts are eye opening and wish more people were exposed to them!
Paxton is a criminal, like Trump. Trump is a racist.
Thank you, Heather. May Trump come to regret his decision to back Paxton come November.
If Ever Is Heard A Disparaging Word
Paxton passed the test.
Apparently Cornyn did not.
Trump went RINO hunting and took him
out with a single shot.
A man who voted with Trump
over ninety percent of the time
who was backed with the bucks of the rest of his party—
his rival indicted of crimes.
A man who sought legislation
to rename I-47
in honor of Donald, his dearest of leaders,
was taught an important lesson:
When you’re home on the Texas range,
there with fear on a tightrope you’ll play,
and if ever is heard a disparaging a word
it will soon be the end of your days.
Dale K. Nichols
https://nevertrumppoetry.substack.com/
Heather Cox Richardson standing up with the facts for democracy thanks
Tempertantrump thoroughly enjoyed Covid-19. It allowed him to divert attention from his failing government and he and his friends made lots of money. Stay in place/work from home was a bonus. Almost complete control. This is round two.
US T? this is not just round two...it's ALL the rounds. it's, as many here realize, an 'historical' time...not some 'day to day' events...condensed...and critical...it's the whole enchilada/bag of beans...
it will be studied in schools no matter WHO comes out on top...please do what you can(i haven't lived there in 25+ yrs) to make sure maga is cast out...it's not JUST the US that's at stake, as i'm sure many of you ALso realize...
especially when Trump gets off on threatening anyone he takes a fancy to doing so with...
i'm concerned that, if the US falls(and it's at least halfway there already. Trump cancels the midterms and it's game over, pretty much), Europe will become a US/Russia sandwich...
Isaac...Think fresh meat between moldy white bread on one side and dried-out rye on the other. You and I have shared foresight, but I believe it will birth a new European renaissance, Canada of course included. And it's in planetary-hegemon China's far greater socioeconomic interest to maintain the peace than to unleash its Russian vassals, in turn allowing Russia to un-bottle its "Unified Reich" ChristoNazi warslime.
(Me? I am not especially troubled by the notion of China as world emperor; after all, their nation, including in its imperial forms, has been around about twice as long as the governments of global elsewhere and has institutional memory of its entire span. Also, I recognized the superiority of their metaphysics before I knew such knowledge existed in formalized form. [I don't pretend to understand how this happened. Despite my urban origins, the essence of that knowledge was originally taught me -- mostly wordlessly -- during seasonal interludes amidst genuine wilderness, typically on the glass-clear waters of some troutly river, creek or pond therein].)
Trump's greatest, most obscenely orgasmic delight in Covid is how it kills many more Blacks than whites: https://www.kff.org/covid-19/covid-19-cases-and-deaths-by-race-ethnicity-current-data-and-changes-over-time/
T - tyrant
R - RACIST
U - uber-coward
M - misogynist
p - pedophile
But the greatest of these is RACIST! From the time his Mother weaned him with HATE!
QUESTION: KNOWING THIS…’WHO’ VOTED FOR TRUMP…TWICE!
😔
COMPLICIT MUCH??
i, too, like your anagram, Jean...but i think it might be more effective if people concentrated on what to do to make sure a) the nov election HAPpens and b) that a VERY clear message is sent...what 'they' do/have done...it's a shame that you all have to live with it(as well as the effect it's had/having globally. but 'they' DO have to live with the results as well...and i don't know how America isn't going bankrupt with Trump spending a billion on this and billions on that...
i DO know that much of maga was very dependent on some of the food programs, as well as reasonable medical insurance...
i'm not happy with ANYone's suffering...it drags us ALL down...
pull together and show them what you're all capable of....please.
One lecture of the “Save America Thinker’s Conference” will be:
‘A Study of the History of Tommy Douglas’ < Canadian responsible for Universal Healthcare for ALL Canadians’.
The USA CAN have free healthcare by studying Canadian history. We did not become ‘communist’ to put in place a Healthcare System the envy of many other nations.
It is my wish that before I die, my family and friends in the USA WILL have this human right along with TRUE equality for all races and genders.
TOO LONG A WAIT ALREADY for the PROMISE that was ‘America’!
😭
Love your anagram -- best grin I've had all day. Thank you, Ms. hanlon.
🇨🇦🤝🇺🇸
Nova Scotia: Home of the former “Pugwash Thinker’s Conferences” at the Cyrus Eaton Estate.
Time to revive these! Discussion is the antidote for ‘war-mongering’…but PLEASE don’t consider inviting Trump! There isn’t time for him to learn: to speak, not swear, stick to the truth and STAY AWAKE. 😆
My Scots paternal grandmother, the late Marion Wilena Dewar, came from Nova Scotia; her first husband, my English paternal grandfather, the late Amos Read Bliss, a civil engineer who was one of the founding inventors of the automotive industry, was from New Brunswick. Thus by act of parliament I am entitled to Canadian citizenship, and as I am terminally ill with CHF, I am hoping to achieve that before I exit.
I was born ‘Marion Jean’, but my Mum was Marion, so…
You must know the ‘Scottish Secret’ of longevity > OATMEAL!!
Hang in there…my ticker isn’t the best either, but, seeing the USA establish Healthcare like we enjoy in Canada is ‘something to live for’!
🤞
Out-living the Big Orange Lizard (note the EYES!) is also a noble goal!
👍
it's always good hearing from you, Loren...even when you're not responding to ME...
your comment about the sandwich made me laugh...thanks. and i haven't really thought about how 'the (major league political powers) stars will align...but what you said makes a LOT of sense to me...i don't understand how your comment didn't wind up here...in FACT...it was too good to keep to myself...so i'm going to open up another tab, grab it from there and paste it here...btw...this next part was how i began responding but thought i'd lost it switching over to THIS new tab...too complicated for MY skills, so i hope it makes sense...but yeah...first up will be the first response to your comment...
this is weird...when i clicked on what you wrote me(moldy, etc), i wound up HERE. and it's not the same comment...so now i'm going to have to go back and forth to see if there's anything for me to respond to...
but the reason i'm glad to be responding is...i really appreciate you, Loren...that sandwich comment made me laugh, first off...and when i see you posting somewhere it makes me glad, as well...as cutting as some of your remarks have been, i still thought they were a)brave and b) RIGHT on the money...so thanks. for ALL of that...
and, as any of my few friends would be happy to tell you, i don't kiss ass/tell lies.
okay...and NOW your initial response...
Isaac...Think fresh meat between moldy white bread on one side and dried-out rye on the other. You and I have shared foresight, but I believe it will birth a new European renaissance, Canada of course included. And it's in planetary-hegemon China's far greater socioeconomic interest to maintain the peace than to unleash its Russian vassals, in turn allowing Russia to un-bottle its "Unified Reich" ChristoNazi warslime. (Me? I am not especially troubled by the notion of China as world emperor; after all, their nation, including in its imperial forms, has been around about twice as long as the governments of global elsewhere and has institutional memory of its entire span. Also, I recognized the superiority of their metaphysics before I knew such knowledge existed in formalized form. [I don't pretend to understand how this happened. Despite my urban origins, the essence of that knowledge was originally taught me -- mostly wordlessly -- during seasonal interludes amidst genuine wilderness, typically on the glass-clear waters of some troutly river, creek or pond therein].)
as for the shared foresight, you have no idea how surprised i was when you began speaking about chinese wisdom/philosophy/metaphysics...EYE was very much drawn to that, as well...in my late teens(late 60s). a few years later i met Alan Watts, in fact. and maybe i'll write you a PM to tell you that story...very weird, how it happened...
wow...all that seems like lifetimes ago, though i KNOW it had a lot of influence on my 'development'...
and yes, i'm not at all afraid of China coming into power...it wouldn't be in their interest to dictate...or take sides with Russia...at least that's the way it seems to me...
for the exact reasons you stated...poor socioeconomic choice...better to incorporate(i love that word...in corpus) (ate ; - ) than to overthrow/dominate...
a 'reverse 51st state'...if that makes any sense...
but, of course, one major step at a time...we have to hold our own, hopefully, in the next...wow...i WAS going to say FIVE months...but now it's more like 4...
another thing, btw, i've valued for a while is chinese medicine...i've read up on it some and it made a lot of sense to me...i'm a retired nurse, btw...a paramedic before that...
dual 'careers'...that and a musician...good balance for me...i had to abandon my license when leaving California, much less the states...but i was lucky enough to find work here(the NL) working with the handicapped, eventually...and i loved my work...both 'jobs' never felt like jobs...
ok...i don't want to make this TOO long...always good to see your name/hear from you...thanks for taking the time...and 'happy trouting', when and if...
Thank you, Isaac, for the detailed response. You got the comment in two pieces because I deleted it to add three video links to the sandwich metaphor -- examples of what the Russians and their Trumpian cesspool buddies would bite into were they overcome by their hunger for apocalypse -- but was then interrupted by a phone call so long I re-posted the comment without the links, which would have been quick glimpses of rapidly rearming British, French and German militaries.
Thank you especially for the "happy trouting"; alas, my outdoor days are ended (save for when I wheelchair out into our courtyard gardens), but always happy, sometimes ecstatic trouting was most assuredly my lot, and reviewing the memories always make me smile. Caught my first three -- a rainbow, a German brown and an unusually large (12 inch) native brookie from the South Branch of Michigan's Au Sable River in 1947 -- I was seven years old -- and this was when those waters were still legendary for their productivity. Fished there (where I also met the first two loves of my life) and Appalachian Tennessee's North River and Citico Creek through my teenage summers; fished less memorable waters in rural NY and NJ as a young adult; then resumed trout fishing as a genuine religious experience in the Cascade wilderness waters of western Washington state. My biggest trout ever, a 5.5-pound, 22-inch native (delicious salmon-pink flesh) rainbow caught on a Mepps spinner, came from the Middle Fork of the Nooksack, though I lost a much bigger rainbow, probably 27 or 28 inches and I'd guess close to ten pounds, fishing the Nooksack's South Fork near its back-country headwaters. That fish too was on a Mepps spinner, and I battled its exquisitely beautiful leaping, running self until it threw the hook and slid with triumphant flip of tail back into the dark depths of the pool where it lived.
i was JUST about to push the reply button when i noticed i was going to reply to the wrong post. i wanted to read yours again...i think the closest i've ever come to your river experiences was back in 74/75...tubing the verde/salt rivers near Phoenix, Az...one of my most memorable 'picture postcard memories' happened there...the limestone cliffs near the dam...with a crescent moon rising above them in the evening light...damn, the dam's broken open, it would seem... ; - )
so here's what i almost posted in the wrong place...
oh GREAT! like i NEED anyone confusing me any more than i sometimes AM... ; - )
i'm laughing as i type...
i don't know, aside from one time when i was...13?, that i've ever been fishing in my life, Loren...oh no, WAIT! my uncle Morris had a boat and we went out...my father, him and a few more adults, though i don't remember who they were now...they were catching a bunch of fish and putting them into a net in the back of the boat...
i remember them hauling in a crab that had pincered one of their lines...when it landed on the deck, my uncle stabbed it and threw it overboard...i didn't like that. i couldn't have been more than 8 yo...so...i surreptiously untied the net and away it went... ; - ) the BEST part, though, was that my uncle jumped IN, clothes and all, to retrieve it...that's how i knew he was nuts...but a GOOD, Brooklyn/having been in WWII kinda crazy...he was a good man...dropped dead of a heart attack when i was a teenager...he was one of the only of my father's relatives that i liked....7 brothers, two sisters...
MY experience was with a friend...at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn...TOtally clueless as to what we were doing...i KNEW we needed some sort of bait...so get this...i go and buy a chinese SHRIMP roll...kind of like an egg roll...figuring, 'well EYE like shrimp...maybe the fish will, too...believe it or don't, we didn't catch any fish...
and i haven't thought of EITHER of these stories in at LEAST 60 yrs...so thanks for letting ME revisit them...i'm still laughing thinking about those...
sounds like you've had quite the life, Loren...i'm happy for you...i'm a city kid... the love for silence is a recent development for me...that, and realizing how NOIsy people are, in general...and i'm not even TALKing about their machines/ toys...
so i can now, finally understand how wonderful what you described might be... took long enough...but better these recent years than not at all...
I too was born in Brooklyn and am in essence an urbanite, though my father's impassioned commitment to the war effort moved us out of the City and into the grotesques of the South shortly before I turned four. Also, the very best years of my journalistic life and my political education were in Manhattan and urban North Jersey. But my spiritual life, its spontaneous perceptions unabashedly pagan, didn't come awake until I was in deep country, which initially was the legacy of my maternal grandparents and a maternal great-grandfather who was one of the heroes at Gettysburg. Hence my life-path has been a passage almost schizoid in its essential alterations between urban/(professionalism) and rural/(spirituality). One of the elements of ChristoNazism I find so violently inappropriate is that if one has any intimacy with Nature, discovering the theocrats' obscene dominance in rural America is akin to finding a rotting rodent beneath the chocolate icing of one's birthday cake.
while you use the word 'schizoid', implying a schism, Loren, i see it as yin/yang...and though some might disagree, i see you as pretty well balanced...
my American history doesn't go back very far at all...(Brooklyn)father's father/paternal grandfather was from Syria. my mother was born and raised in Cuba(where i was for a bit, pre Fidel). HER mother was from Turkey...
EYE? i came, i saw and i left... ; - ) just the racism aLONE was a good reason for me...but, as you understand, there is soooooo much more that is in need of repair...
which may be the best part of this new American 'fracture'...the opportunity for change...that's my hope, of course...
The ‘Childish Prattle’ which identifies the speech of POTUS #47 continues to be ‘broadcast’…WHY?.?.?
Surely there is a ‘minimum’ STANDARD for any national broadcasting regulations that Trump’s potty mouth, and degrading-of-others way of speaking disqualifies it from being broadcast!
‘HATE SPEECH’ (prejudicial of race, nationality, and religion) is SUPPOSÉDLY ‘A CRIME’. Or, it used to be. 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♂️
How is being voted into a top position in the government a reason to look the other way, and NOT HEAR Donald Trump malign, slander, and THREATEN anyone he HATES, simply because SCOTUS is now CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPT = 6 Justices with “0” integrity and 100% loyalty to the Dictator they now FEAR!
All bets are off in TEXAS and any other state Trump can infect with his mafioso tactics.
Marches are important - for morale - but not as effective as getting in the face of friends and relatives who still think Trump has something to offer THEM…at the expense of MANY OTHERS. 👎👎👎
If you truly want your COUNTRY BACK, then search the iron-clad tenets of the Constitution, and then BE PREPARED TO ENFORCE THEM. 💪
Trump’s use of ANY branch of the military for what he is now doing IS ILLEGAL!(tenet #92)
Trump’s expensive ego-stroking at the deficit of other national institutions >>> ILLEGAL!
Trump’s DAILY slanderous messages and AI Videos SHOULD BE >>> ILLEGAL!
Trump’s existence in the political arena while mentally ill, a TRAVESTY…AND…
>>>’CRUELTY TO A DUMB ANIMAL’ if ever that was the case.
Aaauuuugh!😤
T is nothing to me. I now see him on TV and simply turn the channel. If, everyone would start saying, “You are nothing .” Or, “Such a fake person.” He would fall apart , I the wizard of Oz. Maybe we should all, on whatever social media platform you are on, simply block him.
The ordinary expectation, the one written into the architecture of a representative government, is that citizens can know what their government is doing well enough to hold it accountable at the next election. A federal employee nondisclosure mandate does not merely restrict speech; it severs the informational chain that connects a government action to the voter who will eventually ratify or reject it. Don Moynihan's framing is precise: it eliminates the public's ability to know what its government is doing. The people who are governed by those actions remain governed by them whether or not they can see them, and that is not a partisan concern, but a structural one. It applies regardless of which party controls the agency behind the NDA.
Silencing medical research! its such a bad way to make America great
I personally can’t stand the pompous greedy bastard or ANYONE who has supported him over the last 6 years!
Thank you again for your siren call for justice and keeping what is going on in DC at the forefront.
I wish someone would do a podcast themed on the hangings of young black people (and worse) still going on here in the south. I cannot be any more shocked and will never be desensitized to the ongoing horrors being inflicted because of such deep seated racism. It blows my mind.
the bigger problem begins when we become inured, Dorothy.
the pain of the realization is what might motivate people to work for a change...
unfortunately, the South HAS again risen...
The next war
There’s a saying “generals are always fighting the last war”. Meaning that they are fighting with outdated weapons. That is certainly the case with Trump shooting down $30k drones with multi-million dollar missiles.
Worse is the obsession with Irans nuclear material when Iran could potentially ruin the U.S. by simply using AI software. This is not just hypothetical! AI developers have been concerned about this possibilities for years. Consider what the impact of crippling our trucking, shipping and/or telecommunications systems would be. We depend upon completely on shipping for food for example.
AI is tomorrow’s war technology!
These people that follow Trump and Trump himself are destroying this country .
They are criminals without any regard for right or wrong , and are certainly not “bogged down “ with any sort of moral rule.
Their crimes are against our Democracy as well as our humanity.
It’s time we all take stock of this corrupt reality and move to
completely extract
these people from power. .
We need to join forces with Democrats all of us who are sickened by this Dictatorship.
No more authoritarianism.
Call your representatives and let them know this must change and they must work to change it .
C
I
What did I miss?? How in the world did the two political parties belief systems get "reversed" with values previously held by Republicans, now being embraced and supported by Democrats?
After the Civil War, they flipped.