Mal de Swamp
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, 1 December 2017 11-21-17
POGO
Department of Homeland Security Threatens to Muzzle Its Watchdog from Reporting on Trump’s Travel Ban
Nick Schwellenbach
Badlands Journal
Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
11-21-17
POGO
Department of Homeland Security Threatens to Muzzle Its Watchdog from Reporting on Trump’s Travel Ban
Nick Schwellenbach
11-30-17
Vox
The case for normalizing impeachment
Impeaching an unfit president has consequences. But leaving one in office could be worse.
Ezra Klein
https://www.vox.com/2017/11/30/16517022/impeachment-donald-trump
A carol for Christmas, 2017
(Sing to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen")
God damn ye Trumped Republicans,
Who wallow in your swamp,
We must recall you and your president,
On this our Christmas month,
To save us from Kleptocracy,
Which fills your filthy trough.
Oh, tidings of bribery and graft,
Bribery and graft,
Oh tidings of bribery and graft...
--wmh
12-1-17
Public Citizen
11-6-17
Inspector General John Roth, who left the position last week, made the case for adequate resources. He noted that, “money can always be used as a weapon to diminish our ability to conduct the active and independent oversight that Congress and the public deserve.” Peter Tyler, POGO, Dec. 4, 2917
I had been asked frequently, because I was presumed to understand politics by those who want to know, to predict who was going to win in Alabama: the child molester or the Democrat. If you think that is not an appetizing question to accompany your morning coffee, I would agree with you.
As the Republican so-called "tax-reform" bill lurches forward, the Valley, specifically the Almond Industry, gives it the Ol' Valley Whine because the bill cuts the Interest Charge-Domestic International Sales Corporation.
It's going to be a sad Christmas in the Church of the Holy Nut if that ain't fixed before voting time. (For all we know, it has already been fixed, but, then, we, citizens of the nation, will be the very last to know what's in that bill.)
Sorta sounds like the state budget. -- blj
12-13-17
Sacramento Bee
How dry is it? Scientist says California has only slim chance of normal rainfall this winter
Dale Kasler
http://www.sacbee.com/news/weather/article189996659.html
This is how dry it has been so far this season: California’s chances of having a normal “water year” have fallen to around 33 percent in much of the state, according to a federal scientist.
We don’t want to be Amsterdam, or Denver or even Humboldt County. But we don’t want to be left out, either. Editorial, Modesto Bee, Dec. 11, 2017
Following the will of the people of California, it has been -- as they used to say -- a trip watching state and local bureaucracies and hustling entrepreneurs large and small attempting to legalize the production, sale and distribution of recreational marijuana after more than 80 years of illegality and under the cloud of continual federal intransigence on the subject.
“I got railroaded,” Areias said, claiming he was paying more per hour for legal fees than he nets in two days with his farm. “It’s highway robbery. What they did to me today, I should have just let all 18 heifers die. It would have cost less money than what I’ll be paying.” -- Shanker, Los Banos Enterprise, Dec. 12, 2017
The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on. -- Old Arab proverb.
12-21-17
Asia Times
China plans to break petrodollar stranglehold
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/article/china-plans-break-petrodollar-stranglehold/
“Climate change is real,” he warned a state Senate committee. “It is a threat to organized human existence. Maybe not in my life. I’ll be dead. What am I, 79?”
Then turning and facing the packed audience, Brown continued:
“A lot of you people are going to be alive. And you’re going to be alive in a horrible situation. You’re going to see mass migration, vector diseases, forest fires, Southern California burning up. That’s real, guys.” -- Skelton, LA Times, Dec. 14, 2017
12-21-17
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Thomas Fire still 65 percent contained after crews withstand wind event
By Lucas Clark
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/state/california/fires/article19117301...
The Thomas Fire grew just 200 acres last night, bringing its total to 272,800. Crews kept containment at 65 percent.
12-26-17
Ventura Star
Thomas Fire stops growing, 88 percent contained
Christian Martinez,
http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2017/12/26/thomas-fire-stops-growing-88...
The Thomas Fire became California's largest officially recorded fire on Dec. 22, 2017, when surpassed the 273,000-plus acre Cedar Fire.
We juxtaposed these two articles to contrast rural and urban concerns. We don't think the contrast is unfair to either section of American society, given the political exploitation of the contrast by that legion of hacks whose rhetoric is so professional it could make a stone resentful. That said, we are loyal to farm country in sickness and health, and we do think there is a lot of intellectual masturbation going on in urban America, which, we think, our second article is exemplary. -- blj
12-7-17
The Guardian
“If we get a seriously good precipitation year, perhaps that number can go down in 2018,” she said. -- Griswold, Fresno Bee, Dec. 13, 2017
Mike De Lasaux, a forester with the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the state ideally would burn hundreds of square miles of land with surface fuels annually, but he praised any efforts to reduce dangerously overgrown forests. The current plan moved forward following a recent agreement between state and federal agencies along with environmental, logging and recreational interests. -- Weber, Associated Press, Dec. 14, 2017
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Coriolanus, William Shakespeare
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/coriolanus/full.htm
From Act 1: "The tale of the belly."
First Citizen
We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
12-26-17
OpEdNews
In an age of Hollow Men and existential angst, re-read Sartre
By Pepe Escobar