A freakish storm system chugging across the south spit out scores of vicious tornadoes, killing close to four dozen people in six states. North Carolina saw 62 tornadoes all by itself. And I remember hiding out in my Midwestern basement under an old mattress on green-skied day when I was a kid, clutching a Rosary because I didn’t know any better. Yeesh.
Because throughout American history, gangsters have always exercised real, but quiet, power over elected government, it’s only fitting that a group of bipartisan senators doing what the president can’t—”solving” our debt woes bytrading higher taxes and Pentagon cuts for Medicare and Social Security reductions—is called “the Gang of Six.”
Guess who’s hardly paying any taxes these days? It’s not those communists/devils/bogeymen outside the Tea Party rallies, all looking for a handout. It’s these guys.
Catastrophic cleanup news, Part I: The Japanese company that operates the radiation-pissing, quake wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has a plan to seal its balky reactors in nine months. Which sounds good, except that no one actually knows whether that’s possible.
Catastrophic cleanup news, Part II: Some of workers who helped scrub the Gulf Coast after BP’s disastrous Deepwater oil spill are taking ill with mysterious and awful symptoms a year later. One worker said she “suffers from a range of debilitating health problems, including racing heartbeat, vomiting, dizziness, ear infections, swollen throat, poor sight in one eye and memory loss.”
WTF NATO? Libya’s (patchwork, ill-equipped) rebels, taking another pounding in another key town, are starting to wonder whether the western nations that have been dropping bombs on their behalf are as committed to knocking out Moammar Gadhafi as they once trumpeted.
More unrest in the Arab world: Yemen’s longtime dictator is asking the Saudis for help in stepping down, but meanwhile his loyalist forces shot into another anti-government protest.
Even more unrest in the Arab world: Syria’s president for the first time personally promised to lift 50-year-old laws that limit mass gatherings and, possibly, actual, genuine joy. But promises being what they are—cheap—hundreds more Syrian demonstrators defied the law and hit the streets in several cities.
New rules for air traffic controllers have been announced. The big one? Please stay the fuck awake. Pretty please.
Poetic justice, of a sort: An outbreak of Legionnaires disease (a respiratory ailment, although it sounds like something else) has been traced to the (filthy?) Playboy Mansion’s vaunted hot tub. And, uh, 69 people all got sick the same day.
Sorry Blazers fans. But at least you’ve got the Timbers (not without some controversy). Brian Gjurgevich is live-blogging today’s action, and here’s his early report: “The Timbers are riding high after an emotional (epic) 4-2 victory over Chicago on Thursday, while 2010 MLS Cup finalists FC Dallas rolls into the House of Pane after claiming its first win of the year on Friday against Colorado. First kick’s set for 3 p.m.“
Because I might not get a chance in the NBA Finals…
Seeing 62 tornadoes would be a frightening experience for any state, even if it wasn’t all by itself. At least this happened to one of the older, more mature states, and not to, say, New Mexico or Hawai’i.
Balki reactors??!? Oh, balky. That’s not quite so bad.
http://ih0.redbubble.net/work.6760662.1.fi…
Damn you, Denis! I blocked that out of my memory!! Cliff Robinson will forever live in infamy!!!!
This is all really, really, really good and important stuff about what’s going on, and very related, except the garbage about the billionaires/professional “local” sports teams. Given this excellent work from Dennis, I’ll step out of character for a brief moment and describe in detail the pile of crap Chief Mike Reese delivered to the City Club about police brutality last Friday, since the corporate media can’t-
Apparently Chief Reese found what the Portland postal carrier had left behind and delivered it to the City Club, or that was my impression after listening to his anti-marijuana speech on OPB last Friday. Now we know, it’s because were all mentally ill or emotionally distressed and we’re all self-medicating with marijuana that cops are shooting citizens all over America? And who were the “mental health experts” he referred to? My experience has been that psych majors are always trying to “figure themselves out”…
As a reflection of the intent of those who control society, the Reese propaganda presentation was followed on OPB by a story about this family who proudly paid off their mortgage years ahead of schedule, and had vowed to never, ever buy anything on credit, even their cars. Admirable? The story went on to say that if the family have gambled the same amount of money they saved on their mortgage and other credit on the stock market, based on averages, they would have been “more wealthy” — no mention of the stress of being in debt adds to one’s health. A quick closing caveat by OPB mentioned that this assumes the money was gambled on the right stock, or stocks? And that deceptive propaganda by OPB suggesting that paying interest to anyone is a “good thing”, along with the Mike Reese performance last Friday night, really documents how the “Rats” have taken over the ship and we’re all doomed!
First, Chief Reese mentioned how bad he felt about all the many dead citizens killed by police over the last 13 months (as if this hasn’t been a product of the “Brotherhood of the Strong” for many, many decades here), I was deeply touched by his personal remorse…
Do you notice how The corporate media and the government guns have to always spin the story and paint it as being black and white (“The police are concerned there may be other victims! Call police now if you know this man!”), since they can’t cover up the “intent” of their masters as easily as they once did…with more of us watching-
Chief Reese suggested that 95% of his officers are ‘excellent servants’. Really? If there are about a thousand officers in Portland, then I would have to begin such a list of “good officers” by excluding every member of the current force who put on a t-shirt that read “I am Chris Humphrey”. The public union that represents the police claimed this was an act of solidarity, but it was really about giving the public it’s own postal delivery! At the time, the cold-blooded, brutal murder by Chris Humphrey, a Portland police officer, of James Chasse, a severely developmentally disabled man who committed the crime of urinating in public, was still fresh in the minds of almost everyone. The civil suits and “outside” reviews had not yet been completed when the “Brotherhood of the Strong” marched through the streets of Portland — sticking their middle finger in the face of every disabled man, or racial minority, or poor person in Portland, who can’t find a place to urinate. And remember fellas since your parts are not hidden, if anyone claims (and there are cameras every where now) to see you urinating anywhere, and the police don’t stomp your head into the ground (while the paramedics drive you around until you’re good and dead), then you get to be a ‘registered sex offender’ for life…and a target of one of Paulson’s thugs, like ‘Johnny little bit’ Strong…
So any sort of honest list of “good officers” by the Chief would have removed about 80% of his hired guns already, although we know that David Willard and other killer cops from other jurisdictions kicked in to the anti-Chasse rally-
In my opinion, only Jim Quackenbush ought to be on that list. Remember, he was the cop who convinced Aaron Campbell to come out of his apartment, walking backwards, with his hands clasped behind his head. If they wanted to, the three excited predators waiting outside (And remember only two of these three co-conspirators were called before the Grand Jury), could have calmly instructed Aaron Campbell about what else they needed him to do to keep everyone safe, and why. Like the way you might treat another human being in distress. They could have spoken to him gently; they knew his brother had just died that morning, and his actions clearly demonstrated Aaron wanted to surrender. But the “Brotherhood of the Strong” immediately began screaming at him, a quick and easy method commonly used by the police to antagonize a potential victim and justify the eventual murder, as they were trained to do in the military against hostile targets.
It is sad that the Chief would suggest that it’s okay to brutally kick any person who is obviously sleeping, no matter where they are sleeping or what time it is. The fact that Chief Reese would defend Chris Humphrey and his basketball buddy from Multnomah Corrections by suggesting that this practice is any less than inhuman, is itself both a little sickening and a refection of what our society has become- It also does explain why our government feels justified in torturing Bradley Manning, a true hero for having the courage to demand that as a soldier for America he is only obligated to defend and protect an honest, transparent democracy.
The Chief would argue that because the victim is simply trying to keep warm by using a sleeping bag that it’s somehow justifiable to brutally kick another human being, which is exactly how a lot of these Portland cops treat the homeless and the disabled, and exactly how Chris Humphrey murdered James Chasse. Where is Dwight Holton or the inJustice Department when it comes to investigating the cover up of Chasse’s murder by the police, and maybe the DA’s office?
We do know the DA left the name of the supervising officer off the list of witnesses for the Grand Jury who was investigating the shooting of Aaron Campbell in the back by Ronald Frashour. The Campbell shooting reminded me of a time I once went hunting in Florida with a friend, Tennessee John. He took me into the woods with him once, north of Jacksonville and said, “Ya all walk this way herre, and smack the bushes like this herr. With this stick herr, and start hollarin’, and I’ll be down over therr, yonder…where I’m gonna shoot dead anything runnin’- So don’t start runnin’ when I start shootin’! Get that look off your face boy- But don’t worry now I ain’t gonna shoot ya. Ha, ha, ha, lessin’ I want to-“
but the good news is that the Chief will take responsibility or any failure in the “well oiled” system. Great! And he’s going to be getting all of his soldiers stronger tazar guns that can shoot you from 80 feet away and can easily penetrate any clothing. And they’ll be getting stronger pepper spray so that more people will be disabled when it comes to stopping the “bad guys”…or protesters…or the crowds…when times really get hard for us-
My only question now, is after Carl Rove and Mike Reese have spoken, how can City Club top this and find a more “Lucifearian” figure? I have an idea! How bout Carolyn Tomai?
You can ask her, who is she really working for? Why would she want to exclude men from prosecution who happen to have an extra $20,000 laying around and who are caught trying to buy sex from underage prostitutes? And Carolyn isn’t there already laws on the books that punish parents who kill their children by denying them medical care, regardless of their excuses? Why weren’t those parents in Clackamas County properly punished for the deaths of those children? Isn’t it all about saving the “children” for you? Who was the judge on those cases? Is he a friend of yours too? And what questions might have been raised about the judge’s personal life by the defendants’ attorneys and the “forth estate” if any serious convictions of those parents had been handed down, as should have been done…
To quote Clear Channel corporate shill Mark mason, “Are you people blind!”
I think you’ll be happy to note that the Acquire The Fire show at the Memorial Coliseum went off without much in the way of a hitch. This, despite the fact that it was overseen by a bunch of idiot christer teenagers who paid for the privilege of working there, as opposed to people who were paid because they knew what they were doing.
For every time that I (or You; any of us, actually) described Religion in general as some sort of Pyramid Scheme, here is a place where it’s literally true. And if it’s a fucking trend, let’s all go get those pitchforks and axe handles. Shit’s on.