Someone is looking at whatever you do, so always present your most charming you ~ FlyingSnail graphic by C. Spangler ~ Open Flying Snail Views in new tab or window
holiday lightsholiiday lightsholiday lightsholiday lightsholiday lights
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell

Happy 2023 New Year

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. Dwight D. Eisenhower


Stanley Jordan via Total Environment

Disclaimer #4

4. Life is like photography. You use the negative to develop.


Leningrad Cowboys, Happy Being Miserable via Leningrad Cowboys Official

Whaaaaa...t?

I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn't get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look. Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab'em by the (sic) pu__y. You can do anything. . ~ GOP Republicans, #44.9^, or any politician?


Stormy Weather via Jeff Reiter

The Sacred Clowns ~ Heyókȟa

Capitol's double standard:
2014 Lakota song

Greg Grey Cloud, Crow Creek Sioux, was arrested at the Capitol in 2014 after singing a traditional song of peace

Dalton Walker
Indian Country Today
https://indiancountrytoday.com/

Greg Grey Cloud never rushed the U.S. Capitol.

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe citizen never damaged any building property, or trespassed onto the House or Senate floor for a selfie.

But he still got arrested and removed from the Capitol for peacefully demonstrating his approval of a Senate vote six years ago.

On Nov. 18, 2014, a 28-year-old Grey Cloud watched from the Senate chamber gallery, a designated area for the public, as lawmakers considered oil pipeline legislation

When the bill failed as Grey Cloud had hoped, he offered the room a traditional song of peace. The measure, which would have authorized continuation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, fell one vote shy of approval.

“That was a perfect song to sing for those leaders who stood for us and listened to the people, and heard our struggle. And so I wanted to honor them in that way,” Grey Cloud recalled.

The song made lawmakers on the Senate floor pause briefly.

The song landed Grey Cloud in jail.

Nobody for President ~ NOTA

NONE of the ABOVE should be a
valid choice on voter ballots

NONE of the ABOVE should be on voter ballots

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. ~ John Adams


The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. ~ George Washington

NOTA ~ Nobody for President
Nobody always tells the truth & should be President!

Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech

Even Steven's Boptime

On Boptime we begin at 6am (EST) on Saturday morning with oldies back to back to back. We continue in the Holiday spirit at 7am (EST) with Duke Ellington performing the Nutcracker Suite, followed by a program fit for the Winter season. We’ll begin at The Club Baby Grand at 8am (EST) but, cascading into the New Year, Larry and I will play some choice jazz sides followed by some rare, and maybe not so rare, R&B selections. ~ Steve

BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
WVUD 91.3
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn

Feetlines ~New Holiday: December 19th: CRIMINAL REFERRAL DAY

Cat, with misletoe tied to tail, trying to get a Holiday Kiss from a Dog

The Republican Party is now clearly an authoritarian party.

It embraces, condones, accepts and promotes political violence, and does not accept electoral defeat. Their glorification of January 6 proves that they're okay with a violent seizure of power. If they can't win elections fairly, they'd rather end democracy. ~ Steven Levitsky, Professor of Political Science, Harvard University

And it burns

Undone Lullaby, by dj schmolli via Dave

Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech

Even Steven's Boptime

On Boptime we begin at 6am (EST) on Saturday morning with oldies back to back to back. It’s Christmas Eve and at 7am (EST) we present a nostalgic Christmas Special. Beginning at 8am (EST) co-host Larry Williams joins us for some Christmas oriented jazz sides and R&B selections. ~ Steve

BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
WVUD 91.3
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn

Alerts ~ Remembering: Miki Shapiro

Miki Shapiro
December 25, 1929 ~ January 5, 2007

Miki Shapiro
Miki Shapiro

Miki Shapiro, 77; queen grande dame of the 60’s Hollywood scene, died Friday, January 5th, 2007 in Encinitas, Ca. Miki was born Helen Jean McNabb to Addison J. McNabb and Thelma Noble McNabb in Columbus, Ohio on December 25th, 1929. She attended Grandview High School where she was known for her adventurous spirit, non-conformity and wild get-togethers. She followed her brother, Bob McNabb.

Miki Shapiro was a big part of the community here in the early days. She threw the parties, entertained the famous and held a “salon” for the intelligencia of the times. She and her husband, Bennie Shapiro, operated the Renaissance Night Club and the Crescendo on Sunset Blvd, where a multitude of artists performed. Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Miles Davis, Lennie Bruce and Lord Buckley were just a few of the artists. Bennie left the nightclub life to open his own talent agency, taking many of the artists of the times with him. Being a concert promoter, film producer and entrepreneur led Miki and Bennie to be the center of the most exciting era. The Monterrey Pop Festival was just one of their successful endeavors. The movers and thinkers and celebrities of the time all gathered at the Shapiro’s. Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Alan Watts, Hells Angels, The Black Panthers, The Diggers, Merry Pranksters, Sean Connery, Mikhail Barishkonov, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Ravi Shankar, Dylan, Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison, the Grateful Dead, Momma Cass and the Mama’s and Papa’s, Janis Joplin, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Huey Newton, one never knew who they would run into at the Shapiro’s on Kings Road.

In Hollywood, Miki had a contract with RKO, doubled for Jane Russell, and acted in "House of Wax", with Vincent Price.

The [above] accompanying photo is from her house in Yelapa at her daughter Michele's Birthday Party that has Tabitha (7 years old) Sam, Tom and Catherine, Michelle, Marc, Orange Charlie "Chicharro", Joan and Cali and Joe, Electra and Jorge . 1987 Casa Suenos, Yelapa.

Casa Suenos, Yelapa, Mexico
Casa de Los Sueños

Sand and Foam

YELAPA TIDBIT ~ For those who don't know, Donovan wrote a song for and in Yelapa... (The story of the song told by Donovan in his live presentation at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on January 21, 2007. BTW, Ben and Miki Shapiro's place in Yelapa = Casa de Los Sueños.

"Of course fame followed me. It was 1966. We were here in Hollywod, up at Ben Shapiro's place. Ben was bringing in Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Ben was one of the old bohemians. He saw that Gypsy and I were tired. He said, "Why don't you go down to Mexico?" He said, "Go down to Puerto Vallarta, down to Rosa's Cantina." We did. Rosa was there. She took us to a fast boat, it sped us down the Pacific coast of Mexico. Down to Yelapa, a small fishing village. No roads went to this village. We curved around. Young boys in dug-out canoes took us off to a long, sandy beach, the jungle behind. We slept in grass huts, the stars twinkling above us. Down the river, we could hear the jaguars calling to each other in the jungle. And I wrote this song…"


sand and foam via aitor puente

The sun was going down behind a tattooed tree
The simple act of an oar's stroke put diamonds in the sea
All because of the phosphorus there in quantity
I dug you diggin' me in Mexico

There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath a cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the Gypsy had made
We sat and dreamed a while of smugglers bringing wine
In that crystal thought time in Mexico

Sitting in a chair of bamboo, sipping grenadine
Straining my eyes for a surfacing submarine
Kingdoms of ants walk across my feet
I'm a-shakin' in my seat in Mexico

Grasshoppers creaking in the velvet jungle night
Microscopic circles in the fluid of my sight
Watching a dark-eyed native girl cut and trim the lamp
A Valentino vamp in Mexico

The sun was going down behind a tattooed tree
The simple act of an oar's stroke put diamonds in the sea
And all because of the phosphorus there in quantity
I dug you diggin' me in Mexico


We Miss You Miki & Bennie == much love, ~@~

Myths of Mass Deception ~ Christmas

holiday lightsholiday lightsholiiday lightsholiday lightsholiday lights
Saturnalia
/ Brumalia

old print of  Saturnalia
by Apollonius Sophistes

holiday lightsholiday lightsholiiday lightsholiday lightsholiday lights
YOU ARE A PAGAN IF:

Decorated home and  tree  out front = Wishing YOU A Merry Saturnalia

YOU BUY A CHRISTMAS TREE AND DECORATE IT

The evergreen tree is a symbol of the green to come at the re-birth of Mother Earth. In ancient Egypt they laid gifts under Palm Trees during the winter celebration. In ancient Rome they used the fir tree (called the Baal Berith) as a testimony to the Pagan messiah, Baal Tamar. [continue reading]

Old Painting of Saturnalia Celebration

Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech

Even Steven's Boptime

On Boptime we begin at 6am (EST) on Saturday morning with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EST) on The Best of Broadway we head back to this time in 1955 for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s least successful musical, Pipe Dream, based on American author John Steinbeck’s novel Sweet Thursday. At 8am (EST) Michael Ace gets a little demented on Rockabilly Ridge. You’ll have to tune in to hear how weird things could get. At 9am (EST), we bop back to this day in 1955 when Bill Haley’s Comets broke up, and he had to come up with a new crew almost overnight, and Wilmington actually had its own television station. ~ Steve

BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
WVUD 91.3
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn

Feetlines ~ Liars Club Creates Partisan Shol'va Court?

Nobody always tells the truth & should be president!

Liars begetting liars in a Shol'va Partisan Court?
Video: Shol'va Partisan Court Appointment Hearings via redditortan

When contemplating war,
beware of babies in incubators

by Tom Regan, Christian Science Monitor, September 6, 2002

https://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0906/p25s02-cogn.html

More than 10 years later, I can still recall my brother Sean's face. It was bright red. Furious. Not one given to fits of temper, Sean was in an uproar. He was a father, and he had just heard that Iraqi soldiers had taken scores of babies out of incubators in Kuwait City and left them to die. The Iraqis had shipped the incubators back to Baghdad. A pacifist by nature, my brother was not in a peaceful mood that day. "We've got to go and get Saddam Hussein. Now," he said passionately.

I completely understood his feelings. Although I had no family of my own then, who could countenance such brutality? The news of the slaughter had come at a key moment in the deliberations about whether the US would invade Iraq. Those who watched the non-stop debates on TV saw that many of those who had previously wavered on the issue had been turned into warriors by this shocking incident.

Too bad it never happened. The babies in the incubator story is a classic example of how easy it is for the public and legislators to be mislead during moments of high tension. It's also a vivid example of how the media can be manipulated if we do not keep our guards up.

The invented story eventually broke apart and was exposed. (I first saw it reported in December of 1992 on CBC-TV's Fifth Estate Canada's "60 Minutes" in a program called "Selling the War." The show later won an international Emmy.) But it's been 10 years since it happened, and we again find ourselves facing dramatic decisions about war. It is instructive to look back at what happened, in order that we do not find ourselves deceived again, by either side in the issue.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990. As the BBC reported: "The country's ruler, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, fled into exile in his armour plated Mercedes, across the desert to neighbouring Saudi Arabia."

The Kuwait government had to find a way to "sell the war" to the American public, who were interested, but not deeply involved. So under the auspices of a group called Citizen for a Free Kuwait, which was really the Kuwait government in exile (the group received almost $12 million from the Kuwaiti government, and only $17,000 from others, according to author John R. MacArthur) the American PR firm Hill & Knowlton was hired for $10.7 million to devise a campaign to win American support for the war. Craig Fuller, the firm's president and COO, had been then-President George Bush's chief of staff when the senior Bush has served as vice president under Ronald Reagan. The move made a lot of sense after all, access to power is everything in Washington and the Hill & Knowlton people had lots of that.

It's wasn't an easy sell. After all, Kuwait was hardly a "freedom-loving land." Only a few weeks before the invasion, Amnesty International accused the Kuwaiti government of jailing dozens of dissidents and torturing them without trial. In an effort to spruce up the Kuwait image, the company organized Kuwait Information Day on 20 college campuses, a national day of prayer for Kuwait, distributed thousands of "Free Kuwait" bumper stickers, and other similar traditional PR ventures. But none of it was working very well. American public support remained lukewarm the first two months.

According to MacArthur's book "Second Front," the first mention of babies being removed from incubators appeared in the Sept. 5 edition of the London Daily Telegraph. The paper ran a claim by the exiled Kuwait housing minister that, "babies in the premature unit of one of the hospitals had been removed from their incubators, so that these, too, could be carried off." Two days later, the LA Times carried a Reuter's story that quoted an American (first name only) who said, among other things, that babies were being taken from incubators, although she herself had not seen it happen.

From there it began to pick up steam, as one media unit after another started repeating the story without checking it. Sensing an opening, the Hill & Knowlton people jumped on the story.

The key moment occurred on October 10, when a young woman named Nayirah appeared in front of a congressional committee. She told the committee, "I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where 15 babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the babies on the cold floor to die."

Hill & Knowlton immediately faxed details of her speech to newsrooms across the country, according to CBC's Fifth Estate's documentary. The effect was electric. The babies in incubator stories became a lead item in newspapers, and on radio and TV all over the US.

It is interesting that no one not the congressmen in the hearing, or any journalist present bothered to find out the identity of the young woman. She was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, and actually hadn't seen the "atrocities" she described take place. (When later confronted with the lack of evidence for her claims, the young woman said that she hadn't been in the hospital herself, but that a friend who had been there had told her about it. )

Similar unsubstantiated stories appeared at the UN a few weeks later, where a team of "witnesses," coached by Hill & Knowlton, gave "testimony" (although no oath was ever taken) about atrocities in Iraq. It was later learned that the seven witnesses used false names and even identities in one case. In an unprecedented move, the US was allowed to present a video created by Hill & Knowlton to the entire security council.

But no journalist bothered to look into these witnesses' claims. As Susan B. Trento wrote in her book, "The Power House," an in-depth look at Hill & Knowlton, "The diplomats, the congressmen, and the senators wanted something to support their positions. The media wanted visual, interesting stories."

On November 29, 1990, the UN authorized use of "all means necessary" to eject Iraq from Kuwait. On January 12, 1991, Congress authorized the use of force.

The story was later discredited by organizations like Middle East Watch, Amnesty International, and various other groups and media organizations

As Trento comments in her book, whether or not Hill & Knowlton's efforts were effective, or even needed, is open to debate. The US government had already launched a huge campaign to convince the American people to support war against Iraq. But the PR campaign definitely made an impact.

It's a different media world today than the one of 1992. Back then, CNN and the regular broadcast channels, as well as newspapers, were reporting the news. Today, there are many more TV and cable news channels, as well as the Internet, all demanding to be fed 24x7. It would be, in fact, much easier for someone to get a fabricated story circulated even faster. And it would be just as easy for the Iraqis to do it in the Arab world, as it would be for those that oppose them to do it in the West.

In his excellent book on war reporting "The First Casualty (of War is the Truth)," British journalist Phillip Knightly shows how important it is for the media to remain vigilant. While war with Iraq may truly be inevitable, it serves us all well if we make sure the reasons we go are legitimate ones, and not ones cooked up by richly funded public relation firms.

George H. W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas

+"George H. W. Bush" +liar

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=%2B%22George+H.+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

https://www.bing.com/search?q=%2B%22George+H.+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%2B%22George+H.+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

Impeach Clarence Thomas

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach+Clarence+Thomas

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Clarence+Thomas

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach+Clarence+Thomas

Coke Can Clarence

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=coke+can+clarence

Arrest Insurrectionist Ginnie Thomas

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Arrest+Ginnie+Thomas

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Arrest+Ginnie+Thomas

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Arrest+Ginnie+Thomas

Manipulation Accomplished

Manipulation Accomplished by War Criminals Cheney and Bush
Telecom Crimes ~ Patriot Act ~ Denialist ~ He Said It ~ Rethinking 9/11 ~ Are you better off?

Supreme Court to democracy:
Drop dead

With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.

By Gary Kamiya, Salon's executive editor

Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory. With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision.

The court was the last American civic institution to have preserved an aura of impartiality, to be regarded as above the gutter of partisanship and self-interest. The reality, of course, is that no court, no judge, no human being, is completely free of those entanglements. Yet the court has generally acted wisely in avoiding judgments that would inevitably and utterly besmirch it. With one reckless and partisan ruling, it squandered its most precious possession: its reputation. It may take years, even decades, to repair the damage done by the Scalia-Rehnquist court's decision to cancel the election and crown the winner.

It's hard not to conclude, now that this whole sorry saga is over, that the fix was in from the beginning. Not the crude, "vast right-wing conspiracy" fix of Hillary Clinton's imagination, but a de facto fix. Why shouldn't one think the game was rigged, when five Republican-appointed justices -- one of whose son works for the law firm of the lawyer representing Bush, another of whose wife is recruiting staff for the Bush admininstration and two of whom have made clear their desire to retire under a Republican administration -- trashed their entire judicial philosophy to ram through, with only the most cramped of legal justifications, a last-second victory for a Republican who lost the national popular vote and, when the votes in Florida are actually counted, is likely to have lost the Florida one as well?

Perfect justice does not exist. But this was judicial folly, politically explosive and judicially threadbare. This was the court stepping in and awarding victory to one side before the game was over. Even those of us who don't often agree with the court's conservative majority expected better.

As Justice Stevens wrote in his savage dissent, "The position by the majority of this court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land ... Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

As soon as the ruling was handed down, a nearly hysterical chorus of TV commentators, many of them cynical bear-baiters who wouldn't believe oaths sworn by their own mothers, suddenly pulled long faces and began urging the American people to accept the court's verdict, defer to its wisdom, venerate its grandeur, unite around Bush and generally go quietly back indoors to await further instructions. Television is never more nauseating than when it slips imperceptibly into its role as quasi-official national nanny, instructing the unruly masses in correct civic comportment. But if the dissenting justices can pour bile on the majority's opinions -- Stevens explicitly accuses his conservative brethren of impugning the integrity of their judicial colleagues -- why is it so frightening for the people to do the same thing? The American people's allegiance to democracy should be greater than our fealty to a court that has just spat in its face. In any case, we survived His Fraudulency I, the unduly elected Rutherford B. Hayes, and we will survive His Fraudulency II.

What the court ruled, when you get down to it, was that democracy shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of bureaucracy. One man, one vote? Overrated. Every vote counts? Too much trouble. None of those democratic pieties, the court in its infinite wisdom ruled, are as important as strict adherence to niggling rules and timetables -- rules and timetables that the court itself had the power to set aside.

If a court received evidence that a condemned prisoner was actually innocent, but that evidence arrived five minutes after some subclerk's filing deadline, you would not expect it to simply blithely proceed with the execution on the grounds that proper paperwork had not been done. But that, in effect, is precisely what the Supreme Court did. And what it killed was not only any possibility that this election will ever be regarded as fair or final but the principle that every vote must be counted.

Of course, the Florida recount was flawed. The justices had legitimate reason to be troubled by irregularities in the recount process. The differing standards about what constituted a legal vote, left open by the vague Florida statutory language about the "intent of the voter" and the "clear intent of the voter," opened a Pandora's box -- start recounting without a clear standard and you're in an endless wilderness of enigmatic chads.

But the court's position that those irregularities -- which are comparable to the irregularities that plague every election in every state in the country -- violated equal protection rights and therefore are a matter for federal intervention, is indefensible. It's indefensible on grounds of judicial consistency, considering the court's long history of deference to the states in establishing and interpreting local law. But the real reason it's indefensible is factual.

If the recount violated equal protection rights, then the entire Florida election -- not to mention the national one -- did, too. As Gore attorney David Boies pointed out in oral arguments before the court (although he might as well have been talking to five potted plants -- those minds were closed), the different standards used in counting punch-card ballots have considerably less impact on which votes end up counting (the heart of the equal protection claim) than the different voting machines that are used. Optical scan devices, found in richer, whiter, pro-Bush counties, generate many fewer errors than punch-card devices, which are found in poorer, blacker, pro-Gore ones. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court did not suddenly drop its long-standing aversion to meddling in state affairs and rush into Florida to rectify this grave inequality. That apparently only happens when a fellow Republican needs rescuing.

In any case, even assuming that the differing standards used to evaluate punch-card ballots constitute grounds for federal intervention, there was a clear and fair solution, as suggested by Justice Souter in his dissent: Impose a statewide standard, to be overseen by a judge, and see if the recount could be completed by Dec. 18, the date set for the meeting of electors.

What harm would there be in attempting to carry out this remedy? The court made much of Dec. 12, the "safe harbor" deadline after which the frail craft carrying Florida's precious electors would be buffeted by unknown seas -- smashed by Hurricane DeLay, drenched by Tsunami Lott. But as all the dissenters pointed out, nothing in the Constitution requires states to send electors by that date. A safe harbor means exactly that: a safe harbor. Why not expose the electoral dinghy to those seas? What was the court so worried about? Could it be that, like the man to whom they served up the election, their real fear was that Bush might not win? How else to explain their refusal to pursue the option that many observers thought they would -- an evenhanded solution that would have guaranteed victory to neither man, honored the sacred principle that every vote counts, restored the luster to the court and prevented their legacy from being tarnished forever?

Instead of starting with the principle that the sacred duty of any court intervening in an election is to get the votes counted, and doing everything in their power to make that happen in as fair a way as possible, the five GOP justices simply declared that it couldn't be done because recounts weren't perfect and -- gosh, look at my watch! -- time had expired.

This argument is the epitome of probity, if you take your judicial philosophy from Kafka. The majority said the recount couldn't be done in time -- then smashed the clock with a hammer. They had the colossal gall to write, "A desire for speed is not a general excuse for ignoring equal protection guarantees" -- when they were the ones who halted the recount and imposed artificial deadlines that made that "desire for speed" necessary. As Justice Ginsburg said in her dissent, "The court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the presidency of the United States."

It is difficult to avoid the degrading conclusion -- degrading, because it implies a substantial lack of judicial competence and integrity on the part of the court's majority -- that from the start the court's right-wing majority, like the Bush camp to which it has so many ties, secretly regarded the very idea of a recount as suspect, inferior, secondary, an ignoble and unacceptable tainting of the God-given, majestic, sacrosanct first-count results (which just happened to show Bush in a razor-thin lead). The single most frightening image of the entire surreal episode may have been James Baker's icy, contemptuous rage as he denounced Gore's request for a recount -- his scowling face almost a caricature of the left's cartoon image of the authoritarian, white-haired, vengeful, win-at-all-costs, God-is-on-our-side right-winger. The Supreme Court ruling had footnotes instead of rage, but it seems to have operated on the same assumptions.

Justice Scalia confirmed this with his bizarre defense of his order to stop the recount, in which he gratuitously said, "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner, and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." It was prudent of Justice Scalia to include the words "what he claims to be," but does anyone really doubt that Scalia, like those Bush supporters who kept angrily braying that Bush had "won," believed that the Texas governor should by rights have already moved into the White House, and Gore's attempts to find out what the vote actually was were damn near treasonous?

This we-already-won mind-set explains why the court signally failed to look at the election as a whole, and craft a remedy that tacitly acknowledged the errors both sides made -- a ruling that would have been as politically wise as the one it issued was divisive and rash.

Courts are not explicitly political institutions, but when dealing with an issue as momentous as the election of a president, it would seem wise for the court to assess the entire context in which a given legal challenge takes place. The Florida election was an equal-opportunity debacle: Both sides acted wrongly and bear some responsibility for the mess. But no one objective could conceivably look at it and claim that the Democrats had overreached so badly that they deserved to be terminated by judicial fiat.

Florida's governor was George W. Bush's brother. Its secretary of state, who never ruled against him, was a high-ranking official in his campaign who hired a private voter-roll cleansing company with Republican ties that disqualified hundreds of legitimate Democratic voters. The Florida GOP illegally completed Republican ballot applications in Martin and Seminole counties while denying Gore campaign workers the same opportunity to correct Democratic ballot applications. It took every opportunity to disqualify improper ballots for Gore, while demonizing Gore for doing the same thing to military overseas ballots. Determined to ensure a Bush victory at all cost, the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to push a slate of Bush electors through -- regardless of what recounts might show. And, of course, the GOP dragged its feet at every turn, resisting recounts and trying to run out the clock.

The Democrats, for their part, lost the moral high ground by failing to call for a statewide manual recount from the beginning. They squandered more capital threatening to sue over a ballot designed by a Democrat. They ignored the obvious injustice of changing the definition of what vote should count in the middle of the process: Palm Beach's recount, in which the standard kept changing, was a travesty. And, like their Republican counterparts, they played hardball with every ballot they could get their hands on.

In light of this situation, a ruling that handed victory to one side and not the other was the last thing, from a political as well as an ethical perspective, the court should have been looking for. And fortunately for the court, a decision to remand back to the Florida Supreme Court would not by any means have ensured a Gore victory -- Bush was actually gaining votes by some accounts -- making it the right thing to do both legally and politically. Yet the court, in thrall to the idea that Bush had already won and, one suspects, secretly accepting the Rush Limbaugh crowd's canard that the hand recounts were not just subject to different standards but to malevolent Democratic manipulation and chad chomping, did not even try. It stopped the counting. It stopped the election. It stopped democracy.

Justice Ginsberg, in her dissent, summed up the case with quiet eloquence. "Ideally, perfection would be the appropriate standard for judging the recount. But we live in an imperfect world, one in which thousands of votes have not been counted. I cannot grant that the recount adopted by the Florida court, flawed as it is, would yield a result less fair or precise than the certification that preceded recount."

Thousands of votes have not been counted. Think about that, whatever your political persuasion is, from time to time during the next four years. Imagine them, gathering dust in a filing cabinet somewhere, each one of them expressing the choice of a person who, when he went to the polling place that Tuesday in November, had every expectation that the United States would do its very best to ensure that whether he was rich or poor, black or white, he would be heard.

The people have not been heard. They will not be heard. And each of those uncounted ballots is a cry of reproach against the act of judicial arrogance that has now forever silenced them.

[Ed. Note: This article was linked to many pages since 2000 using this address: http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/14/bush/index.html == which no longer works. However, I saved a copy and have permalinked it here. - Dahbud Mensch]

George W. Bush appointed Samuel Alito

+"George W. Bush" +liar

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=%2B%22George+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

https://www.bing.com/search?q=%2B%22George+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%2B%22George+W.+Bush%22+%2Bliar

Impeach Samuel Alito

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach+Samuel+Alito

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Samuel+Alito

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach+Samuel+Alito

Life is deep and simple and what our society
gives us is shallow and complicated. Mr. Rogers

Mr. Rogers says, "Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated."


Dunning~Kruger effect

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ Source

In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence.

As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others." ~ [continue reading w/references]


Pathological Lying

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ Source

Pathological lying (also called pseudologia fantastica and mythomania) is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.  It was first described in the medical literature in 1891 by Anton Delbrueck. Although it is a controversial topic, pathological lying has been defined as "falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime". ~ [continue reading w/references]


Cult

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ Source

The term cult usually refers to a social group defined by its religiousspiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or its common interest in a particular personality, object or goal. The term itself is controversial and it has divergent definitions in both popular culture and academia and it also has been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. In the sociological classifications of religious movements, a cult is a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices, although this is often unclear. Other researchers present a less-organized picture of cults saying that they arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices. Groups said to be cults range in size from local groups with a few members to international organizations with millions. ~ [continue reading w/references]


Collective Narcissism

From WikiZer, Open wikipedia design ~ Source

Collective narcissism (or group narcissism) extends the concept of individual narcissism onto the social level of self. It is a tendency to exaggerate the positive image and importance of a group the individual belongs to – i.e. the ingroup. While the classic definition of narcissism focuses on the individual, collective narcissism asserts that one can have a similar excessively high opinion of a group, and that a group can function as a narcissistic entity. Collective narcissism is related to ethnocentrism; however, ethnocentrism primarily focuses on self-centeredness at an ethnic or cultural level, while collective narcissism is extended to any type of ingroup, beyond just cultures and ethnicities. While ethnocentrism is an assertion of the ingroup's supremacy, collective narcissism is a self-defensive tendency to invest unfulfilled self-entitlement into a belief about ingroup's uniqueness and greatness. Thus, the ingroup is expected to become a vehicle of actualisation of frustrated self-entitlement. When applied to a national group, collective narcissism is similar to nationalism: a desire for national supremacy. However, the two constructs differ not only because collective narcissism can refer groups other than the nation. Nationalists are openly dominant and deny weakness. They seek international supremacy. Collective narcissism is related to a sense of weakness and preoccupation with the lack of recognition for the ingroup. Collective narcissism, but not nationalism, is related to hypersensitivity to intergroup threat and retaliatory hostility.  While nationalistic intergroup hostility is actively aggressive and openly dominant, collective narcissistic intergroup hostility is subjectively defensive. Collective narcissists protect the ingroup’s image rather than assert the ingroup’s dominance. However, these constructs are functionally distinct: they make different predictions for intergroup attitudes, they are related to different emotional profiles and different attitudes towards the self. Positive overlap between ingroup satisfaction and collective narcissism suppresses collective narcissistic intergroup hostility. ~ [continue reading this w/references and view other topics]


Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch,
Brett Kavanaugh & Amy Coney Barrett

+"Donald Trump" +liar

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=%2B%22Donald+Trump%22+%2Bliar

https://www.bing.com/search?q=%2B%22Donald+Trump%22+%2Bliar

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%2B%22Donald+Trump%22+%2Bliar

Impeach Neil Gorsuch

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach+Neil+Gorsuch

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Neil+Gorsuch

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach+Neil+Gorsuch

Impeach Brett Kavanaugh

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach+Brett+Kavanaugh

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Brett+Kavanaugh

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach+Brett+Kavanaugh

Impeach Amy Coney Barrett

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach++Amy+Coney+Barrett

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Amy+Coney+Barrett

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach++Amy+Coney+Barrett

Impeach Supreme Court

https://freespoke.com/search/web?q=Impeach+Supreme+Court

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Impeach+Supreme+Court

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Impeach+Supreme+Court

How To Impeach A Supreme Court Justice,
The Procedure via American Judicial System

https://www.ajs.org/how-to-impeach-a-supreme-court-justice/

The government works under the separation of powers and checks and balances. To ensure that the Judiciary remains independent, the Supreme Court judges have tenured positions.

The Executive and the legislature need to hold the Judiciary accountable for their actions. Here is where checks and balances come in.

The Constitution provides the necessary procedure for ousting a sitting Supreme Court justice.

Congress is the only constitutionally mandated body to carry out impeachment hearings. The trials happen in the Upper House of Congress.

How To Impeach A Supreme Court Justice

Congress is the only body that can oust a Supreme Court judge. The Constitution mandates the House of Representatives to carry out impeachment. Any impeachment trial for any public servant has to occur in the Senate.

Here is a detailed procedure on how Congress carries out impeachment:

1. Investigation

Before the impeachment trials, Congress must investigate the Supreme Court judge. A special congressional committee does the investigation. The Committee constitutes members of the House of Representatives.

In most cases, the Judicial Committee of the House does the impeachment investigations.

The Committee gathers the facts of the case. They establish probable cause for impeachment.

2. Voting in the Lower House

Once the Judicial Committee conducts the investigation, they present the Articles of Impeachment.

The Article of Impeachment is a detailed document containing the charges. These charges get used as the basis for removing the Supreme Court Judge.

The Committee brings the Articles before the House of Representatives. The House votes on whether or not to impeach the Supreme Court Justice.

If there is a simple resolution, the Supreme Court Justice gets impeached. A simple or common resolution requires a 50% + one-vote majority.

If the Articles fail to get a simple majority, the process ends at this stage. The Supreme Court Justice can resume office.

3. Senate Trials

The Senate trials are the last stage for impeachment. The House of Representatives must have passed a simple resolution to get to the senate trials.

The resolution supports the Articles of Impeachment put forth by the Judicial Committee of the Lower House.

The Chief Justice presides over the trial. They do so in their capacity as the head of the Judiciary.

The Supreme Court justice gets put on trial. He answers the charges. The Senate then votes to oust or keep the Justice in office.

The Supreme Court Justice can only leave office if the Senate passes a special resolution. It requires a 67% majority vote to put the person on trial.

If the Senate fails to meet the 67% majority, the Supreme Court Justice remains in office.

Checks And Balances In The Judiciary

For democratic countries, Checks and Balances are one of the most important doctrines. Constitutions protect the concepts all over the world.

What are Checks and Balances? They are constitutional regulations that ensure branches of government hold each other accountable for their actions.

The Judiciary, Executive, and Legislature all regulate each other without interference at a functional level.

Checks and Balances protect public and federal offices from abuse of power and misconduct. There are various ways the Constitution promotes accountability in government.

The Judiciary can reject all unconstitutional executive orders. Likewise, the Judiciary can reject any unconstitutional bill. Judicial positions are tenured. The only way to remove a sitting justice is through impeachment.

The Executive appoints the Chief Justice, the head of the Judiciary. The president gives nominations for the Chief Justice and Supreme Court Justices.

The nominees must undergo vetting in the Senate. The nominees get vetted by Senate to establish whether they are fit for the roles.

The Justices enjoy Tenure of Office. Their positions do not have fixed terms. It means that the same judges can serve across different political regimes.

The Doctrine Of Separation Of Powers And The Supreme Court

Separation of Powers is equally as important as Checks and Balances. It is the main aspect of democracy. The Constitution protects the doctrine in several articles.

What is Separation of Powers? It is a concept that ensures that the branches of government do not influence each other’s functions. It allows the branches to operate freely without undue influence.

It is important to ensure that the branches operate independently. Political influence erodes the government’s effectiveness and impartiality.

The Constitution protects the functions of the Judiciary. No other arm shall interpret the Constitution apart from the Judiciary.

The Supreme court is the highest legal authority in the land. No arm shall overturn Supreme court decisions.

The Supreme Court is the only court that can hear election petition cases.

Because the positions in the Supreme Court are tenured, they can work free from undue influence.

The Federal Court And State Courts

The United States has a hierarchy in the legal system. The courts operate under the Federal Court System. There are three main levels of the system. They are:

District Courts, Circuit Courts, and The Supreme Court

Each state has its State Court System. These courts differ widely and operate within a state’s jurisdiction. The courts mainly hear criminal cases.

Federal courts also have limitations on the type of cases they can hear. Federal statutes bind these courts.

What if the jurisdictions of the federal and state courts overlap? The plaintiff’s prerogative is to choose between the state or federal court.

Federal Courts have diverse jurisdiction. A plaintiff may choose to bring legal action to a defendant in a different state. The defendant may be outside the state’s court jurisdiction.

The defendant’s state might not be willing to deport them, but federal courts can hear the case. What if it is a criminal case? The federal courts do not have the authority to hear such cases.

There are two extenuating circumstances where federal courts might hear criminal cases:

The state courts forward a criminal case to the federal courts.

The federal government refers criminal cases to the federal court.

The federal court and state court systems allow for two trials in some cases. You can get convicted in a federal court if you get an innocent verdict in your state court.

The Supreme Court

It is the highest court in the land. The court has the final verdict on all cases dealing with federal law.

The Chief Justice is the head of the Supreme Court. They are also the head of the Judicial branch of government.

The Supreme court is also an appellate court. The Supreme court can hear cases from Circuit Courts. Note that the court reserves the right to turn away appeals. If it is the case, the previous verdict remains.

The court has eight supreme court justice. All members of the court are presidential appointees. They have to undergo senate vetting. Just like the Chief Justice, Supreme Court justices have tenured offices.

There are specific cases that only the Supreme Court presides over. An example is a presidential election dispute. The court also determines whether legislations are constitutional.

Circuit Courts

These are the Federal Courts of Appeals. They are the second-highest courts in the United States. If a defendant gets a guilty verdict, they have a right to appeal. The circuit court listens to such cases.

There are currently 12 federal courts in the United States. These courts serve a block of states.

A court has jurisdiction over several states.

The judges who head these courts are presidential appointees. Once the president has given the nomination, the Senate confirms them. They enjoy tenure of office. The only way to remove the judges is through impeachment in Congress.

Some appellate cases don’t lie within a Circuit Courts’ jurisdiction.

These cases include court-martial appeals. The Court of Appeal for the Armed Forces hears such cases.

District Courts

They are the base-level federal courts in the United States. In the country, every state has a federal court.

They hold federal trials at the district levels.

These courts have District Judges. Just like Supreme Court Justices, their positions are tenured. You can, therefore, not remove the judges except through impeachment in Congress.

The courts appoint magistrate judges. Magistrate judges do not enjoy tenure in office. They have a fixed term and get replaced when the term ends. The judges appoint the magistrate through a simple majority vote.

District courts can hear cases where the accuser and defendant stay in different states. They have jurisdiction beyond the state boundaries.

Some cases, such as bankruptcy claims, cannot be heard at the state level. The District Courts hear the cases.

Conclusion

The principle of separation of powers and checks and balances checks the government. The Supreme Court judges have tenured posts to guarantee the independence of the Judiciary.

The Executive and legislative branches must hold the Judiciary responsible for its conduct. Here is when checks and balances come into play. The steps for removing a sitting Supreme Court justice are in the Constitution.

The only body authorized by the Constitution to hold impeachment proceedings in Congress. The trials take place in the House of Representatives’ Upper Chamber. ~ [Visit American Judicial System: https://www.ajs.org/]

Closing Argument

Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.

Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.

Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.

And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.

In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretapping's, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.

There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.

Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.

Stop for a second and try to fathom that.

At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.

This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?

*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*

Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.

Alan: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.

Judge Robert Sanders: Please get out of the chair.

Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.

Judge Robert Sanders: Get out of the chair!

Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un American.

U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentially, it's speech time.

Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!

U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!

Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!

Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say, please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.

Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."

Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."

I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her. ~ Boston Legal ~ Stick It ~ Season 2 ~ Episode 19 ~ [Video at link] ~ Written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy ~ Directed by Adam Arkin.

None 0f the Above should be a valid choice on voter ballots!


Turtles All the Way Down by Sturgill Simpson via Mankind Film

PPRS ~ Pacific Packet Radio Society Historic, 1st U.S. Wireless Digital Communication

Pacific Packet Radio Society
42nd Anniversary

Wireless Digital Communication was introduced (in the United States) by Dr. Hank Magnuski (Co-founder PPRS), when his historic KA6M-1 Digital Packet Radio Repeater began operation on December 10, 1980.

Pacific Packet Radio Society - PPRS - First Packet Radio Repeater - December 10, 1980
Pacific Packet Radio Society gateway | history | photos | papers | links | packet audio | video

Dear Packet Radio Enthusiast,

Thanks very much for the letter of inquiry which you sent me. The response I've received to the initial publicity about the packet repeater has been very enthusiastic, and I have been deluged with requests from hams, both locally and from various points around the country, for more information about the repeater, for schematics, for listings, specifications, modems, proms, SDLC chips, Vancouver boards, and for talks at clubs. Needless to say, all this activity, plus continuing development on the packet hardware and software has kept me very busy, and I apologize for the long delay in responding to your letter. Let me bring you up to date on what has happened, or is happening, since the initial announcement of the repeater, which went on the air in December of 1980.

KA6M/R - Packet Radio Repeater, 1980 ~ Front View
World's First Digital Repeater for Wireless Data Communications
KA6M/R - Packet Radio Repeater. 1980 ~ Front View ~ PPRS photos

KA6M/R - Packet Radio Repeater, 1980 ~ Back View
World's First Digital Repeater for Wireless Data Communications
KA6M/R - Packet Radio Repeater, 1980 ~ Back View ~ PPRS photos

In the early months of this year, the packet repeater was operating out of my residence, and was still an experimental machine. Since then, we have installed a couple of upgrades to the control software, we have used a better CPU card, increased the power level, moved the repeater to 700 feet elevation, and integrated its operation to be 100% compatible with the protocol used by the Vancouver Digital Communications Group (VADCG). The repeater has changed from being a laboratory curiosity to a major Bay Area repeater heard from Berkeley to south San Jose, and the user community has grown from a couple of stations to a network of some 30 users. The packet system here now has a mailbox on-line 24 hours a day, several on-line personal computers, and network links (courtesy of a commercial packet network) to the other active packet radio centers in Vancouver and Ottawa. We have also just installed an HF port on 20 Meters, and are beginning some experiments aimed at establishing connection with AMRAD in Washington and with equipment located at W1AW.

VADCG TNC built by C. Spangler
VADCG TNC built by C. Spangler, N6ECT ~ PPRS photos

Most of the original packet radio experiments were done in Canada (in part due to the Canadians' pioneering communications spirit, and in part due to less restrictive regulations up there), and three main centers were at work: Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. The technology employed by each of these groups differed, and each approach has its own merits. My thinking and ideas very closely paralleled the work started by Doug Lockhart, VE7APU, and I can best report on what is happening with groups which have adopted HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) framing as the basis of their protocol. The HDLC/ SDLC frame is a new, universally accepted standard in the data communications industry, and Doug and I feel it offers a good starting point on which to build a packet radio network. As it turns out, groups in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, El Paso, Denver, Sacramento, and Hamilton have also taken up this technology, and it is likely that we already have a sufficient number of people using this technique that it will become the defacto standard in the amateur radio community.

It would be impossible for me to completely describe the protocol and equipment being used in this letter, so I will briefly cover some of the topics and give you some pointers on where to find additional information. As you might guess, this is a new area for amateur radio, and tutorial material and handbooks simply do not yet exist. Many issues and problems remain to be discussed, and there is opportunity to make substantial contributions to the state of the art. [Snip] [Continue Reading] - Thanks again for your interest. See you on the net. Best regards, Hank Magnuski, KA6M - [More Papers and History]

Paul Krassner ~ Investigative Satirist

The Ten Suggestions

by Paul Krassner, 24 March 2003

Paul Krassner photograph by Chris Nelson
Paul Krassner ~ 12 September 1987, San Francisco, CA ~ Photo: Chris Nelson

1. Stay well-informed and be on the alert for disinformation; besides mainstream media, check out alternative papers and the Internet, especially the international press.

2. Maintain empathy for the motivation of terrorists and sympathizers, bearing in mind that they are victims of their own conditioning.

3. Start saving the world by acting in every aspect of your daily life as though you were a role model for all humankind.

4. Understand and forgive your foibles instead of guilt-tripping yourself.

5. Resist police-state legislation passed in the guise of security.

6. Pro-choice or not, don't abort your inner child.

7. With the stench and sadness of death so much in the air, practice loving those you cherish while they're still alive.

8. Keep feeling hopeful by finding your balance between total despair and the 100th Monkey fable. As Harry Chapin said, "If we don't act like there's hope, there is no hope." And remember, placebos work.

9. Pay attention to Godspin, such as, "I never said Promised Land, I said I'd see what I could do."

10. When eating a sandwich at the delicatessen, be sure to remove the toothpick before taking your first bite.

Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech

Even Steven's Boptime

On Boptime we begin at 6am (EST) on Saturday morning with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EST) on The Best of Broadway we head back to this time in 1943 for the landmark musical Oklahoma. At 8am (EST) on Rockabilly Ridge, Michael Ace serves up some sweet tunes all about Ice Cream, Candy and Cake. We return to this time in 1943 at 9am (EST), during some of the darkest days of World War II and even though we had just passed the turning point in the War there were shortages and rationing on the home front. However, the music kept our spirits up in spite of a strike by the musicians’ union and the lack of shellac used to make records. ~ Steve

BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
WVUD 91.3
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn

Alerts ~ Remembering Ralph Eno

"Freaky Ralph" Eno

December 6, 1948 ~ February 17, 1984
Ralph EnoRalph Eno photograph by C. Spangler

On February 17, 1984, Ralph Eno, local performer, died of burns at S. F. General.

Ralph was definitely the bull goose loony of even such an already fringy scene as San Francisco's.

In the early '70s he was the only male member of the women's theatre group Les Nickelettes, doing comedy rock when The Tubes were still the Beans.

As "Freaky" Ralph, he founded his one-man "progressive surf music" movement, several years before something called "new wave" would hit the covers of the glossy magazines. When punk started becoming a household word, he was already moving into his modem romance phase as Ral Pheno and the Twitchers, presaging the new English invasion.

When the local comedy scene (which he helped found at Frank Kidder's coffee house in the Intersection) finally achieved some viability, he was right there at the open mikes, singing the same songs he'd been performing as "straight" in his previous incarnations.

Through it all he was a courageous, sincere, and passionate stage performer, a prolific songwriter, a terrible businessman (releasing four independently produced records), a fervent supporter of every aspect of the Bay Area performing community, a bottomless well of junior high jokes, and a tremendous inspiration to every one who knew him well.

Some audiences found him hysterical, some unbearable, and a few thought him a genius. No one could write him off casually, except maybe Ralph himself.

Below are two MP3 songs written by Ralph Eno, with Jeff Ross and the Pointless Sisters that have been placed here in honor of his memory ~@~

WE'RE SNAPPING ~ http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/WeAreSnapping.mp3

KISS-UP ~ http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/Kiss_Up.mp3

[Note: Ralph was a very dear long time friend who I would drive, w/equipment, to his performances. I sincerely miss him and think of him often. (sigh/fwiw) Ralph poured five gallons of gas on his body, near where he worked his day job, set himself on fire, spent two (2) weeks in intensive care covered with very painful first degree burns, and died. Many prayers for you Ralph! ~@~ United State Cafe Link ~ Podcasts]

Feetlines ~ Reject the Evidence of Your Eyes & Ears

Tainted News:
Tomi Lahren should fight addiction and not have to step on "used heroin needles" to get high?

Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic The Daily Show w/Trevor Noah via Joey deVilla
1,000,000
March 23, 2022 Coronavirus (COVID-19) Stats & Numbers showed:
One Million (U.S.A.) HUMANS DEAD
Nobody really knows that ... on December 17, 2022 there have been
1,082,383
provisional COVID-19 deaths in the United States, begging the question:
Was Tainted News Accessory to Murder?
cat

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State. Joseph Goebbels

abc
I want to thank all the BIG people who helped make this happen; the secretive governments,
the blame-shifting politicians, the 'leaders' who only cared how I might affect THEM...
Cartoon by Steve Sack @ Star Tribune https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Tribune
...

Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Declaration of Independence


Positively 4th Street, Bob Dylan, HQ via Franciescoli Polanni

Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They own you! They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. George Carlin

Liberty Splits
Statue of Liberty last seen walking back to France

Feetlines ~ Is There A CURE Yet? ~ 202209.06: How about antibody SP1-77 ?

Is There A CURE Yet? ...asking for a friend?
Buzz

Scientists Discovered an Antibody
That Can Take Out All COVID-19 Variants

https://www.prevention.com/health/a41092334/antibody-neutralize-covid-variants/

And they hope to create a new vaccine with it.

by Korin Miller, @ Prevention, September 6, 2022

COVID-19 vaccines have been effective at keeping people from getting severely ill and dying from the virus, but they’ve required different boosters to try to keep on top of all of the coronavirus variants that have popped up. Now, researchers have discovered an antibody that neutralizes all known COVID-19 variants.

The antibody, called SP1-77, is the result of a collaborative effort from researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Duke University. Results from mouse studies they’ve conducted were recently published in the journal Science Immunology, and they look promising.

But what does it mean, exactly, to have an antibody that can neutralize all variants of COVID-19, and what kind of impact will this have on vaccines in the future? Here’s what you need to know.

What is

SP1-77
[Click for Updated: Current Articles & Source @ freespoke.com]

SP1-77 is an antibody developed by researchers that so far can neutralize all forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was created after researchers modified a mouse model that was originally made to search for broadly neutralizing antibodies to HIV, which also mutates. [continue reading @ Prevention]

Heads up folks:
Bacteria from respiratory droplets spread by one sneeze,
singing one minute, talking one minute, & two coughs

Mask ~ No Mask: Bacteria from respiatory droplets spread by one sneeze, singing or talking for one minute, and two coughs via Dr. Richard Davis, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
via Dr. Richard Davis
@ Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center

Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech

Even Steven's Boptime

On Boptime we begin at 6am (EST) on Saturday morning with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EST) on The Heart and Soul of Delaware Rock n’ Roll we continue to tell the story of Wilmington’s Richie Records that includes music from Joey & the Challengers, Johnny Neel, and the Enfields. At 8am (EST) on Rockabilly Ridge, Michael Ace spins tunes that were not for U. S. release. At 9am (EST) on Beatlemania we bop back to 1967, the end of a psychedelic year for the Beatles, at the zenith of the war in Vietnam, great Soul music and music with a message. ~ Steve

BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
WVUD 91.3
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn

Notes from ~@~

Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced.  Tom Smothers


Carlin Step, DJ Steve Porter & Eli Wilkie via Roland Kardeby


The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) via R Smittenaar

Beautiful Child


One Day, Matisyahu


Unsung Hero via Rattakarn Srithavatchai "Garn"

The Sacred Clowns ~ Heyókȟa

The Heyókȟa symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakȟáŋ. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.

Principally, the Heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyókȟas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.

In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyókȟa's don't seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness.

Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites
Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites

Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten. Cree Prophecy

Nobody for President ~ NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on voter ballots!

Nobody for President 2020 = NONE OF THE ABOVE on Voter Ballots
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President San Francisco Rally, October 12, 1976 - Photograph: James Stark
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President, 197610.12 ~ Photo: James Stark

Nobody bakes apple pie better than Mom, is eternal, perfect, has all the answers, ended war, will love you forever, brought peace to our time, fixed global warming, fed the hungry & destitute, knows, cares, shives a git about you, loves you when you're down & out, and if elected will not lie to, or steal from, 'the people'; ...begging a question, What's NOTA's entry fee ...more lies that lead to mass murder or human sacrifice, when Nobody says why not try love again?


American Dream, George Carlin via Ishtar [Not Work Safe] Alternative source with text
NOBODY should have that much power!

Message via Mike Pinder

Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light. Mike Pinder


Why I Think This World Should End, Prince EA via Prince EA
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon
Artist, John Flores



The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man, But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.

Somebody is looking at whatever you do, so always present your most charming you
Don't miss out on a blessing because
it isn't packaged the way you expect!




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{ ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ} Did politicians lie about Daylight Saving Time? { ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ}

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