It's not
about being liberal or conservative anymore y'all. That is a hype offered by the fascist whores who want to confuse the people with lies while they turn this country into an aristocratic police state. Some people will say anything to attain power and money. There is no such thing as the Liberal Media, but the Corporate media is very real.
Humans think and envision with images and vague notions that are internalized. Sometimes this
panoply of thought and ideas are connected to words and vocabulary, but in raw form, our instinctive
thought process or mindset is independent of words and vocabulary. Hence the language used to
convey or speak to oneself depends on the underlying language. The languages of the world are not
all inherently, constructively the same. Some are noun dependent. Some are Verb dependent. Some
have different constructs for transitive or passive voices. Some use Direct and indirect object
declarations very heavily, and others no so much. Some have the prepositions incorporated in the
verb. Some do not use plural forms of nouns.
An English speaker for instance, would say "I feel bad." Pronoun, present-tense-verb, adverb. A
French speaker however would say "Je me sens mal" or "I myself feel bad." Pronoun,
Direct-Object, present-tense-verb, adverb. In French the verb is more powerful. It needs a direct
object, because if you
say "Je sens mal" that means "I smell bad." Yikes. You don't wanna say that.
This is because in French/Latin the notion of "feel" or internal intuitive sense is connected to the
primal word for
"smell."
I use Word Reference frequently to look
up words in other languages online. Wordreference.com is a real good one. The examples are awesome, being aided by
native speakers from all over the world who supply the insight. Today, I am looking up the word for
"everywhere" in French because I could not remember it (it is "partout" ... "for/involving everything"
). I came across the following statement in French.
Un oubli important ? Signalez une erreur ou suggérez une amélioration.
Which means, "Is there something that was forgotten that is important? Tell us about the error or
suggest something more beneficial."
First of all, notice how much is conveyed in French in a few short words. Second of all, wow, like
English speakers would never say this. They would say
Did we forget something? Let us know about an error or suggest how we can do better?
Notice how noun/pronoun dependent English is. Starting a sentence
with a verb in French is common, but unlike English, it does not need any help from other language
devices. In English, the sentence has to involve more words than the verb in order to
be effective because verbs are weak -- "let us know about" (4 words) versus "Signalez" (1 word) , or
"did we forget"
(2 verbs) as against "Un oubli important" (no verbs). The literal translation of "Un oubli
important" is "A forgotten item important" which needs a verb in English.
The verbs in English come
before the direct object. You hear the action before the object because the verb cannot incorporate
the object in English like it does in French. Hence the 3 word verb phrase "suggérez une
amélioration " is translated into
"suggest how we can do better" in English because English needs both two other verbs (can do) and a
qualifier word "how" since the English verb cannot incorporate the object or implied idea on it's
own. The word "how" was necessary to convey the same information because the word "suggest" is
weaker in English than the French
Which means that the action is more important than the individual in the English language. In
English the person is subsidiary to the action. The verb is just a portal between noun/pronoun and
stuff. It has no inherent power except in a literary sense when creative English speakers use the
language to it's utmost potential.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017 at 4h 49m 18s
Jean-Paul Marat redux
This is a quote I found on the 21st of August, way back in 2012.
“Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen
because the poverty’s been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of
these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never
had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in
when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there’s no inequality worth speaking of
and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their
marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of
bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect
their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more
deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces.”
— Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated during the French revolution in July 1793. Click here for a decent biography.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017 at 4h 6m 20s
The greater danger
Friday, 3 February 2017 at 6h 13m 56s
Two Door Cinema
Oh but just in case, this is Two Door Cinema live. Wow.
Friday, 3 February 2017 at 5h 57m 57s
Another obscure Kowalski song
This band just appeals to me lately. The guitar, the base, the sweetness of the vocals and the
blissful uplifting spirit of the song really gets me.
"Go go go ... go go go" ... yea man that hits the spot.
This song is cool too (same album) -- "Answers On A Postcard".
And this song (same album) -- "Duck, Duck, Goose".
And from the second album ...
Friday, 3 February 2017 at 4h 34m 8s
The Pineapple Express Today
Again, notice the counter-clockwise circular spin just west of Oregon. During the years of drought,
that spin was centered farther North and West, in relation to Washington and southern Canada. Hence
that line of squalls in the southern tail of the storm that is now gonna fling into mid-California.
During the years of drought, that line was slung into Oregon and never touched California.
I am not a weather expert, but after years of observing this radar data (because I am curious) this
is what I have noticed.
Friday, 3 February 2017 at 4h 22m 13s
Yo fool
I hear all these folks criticizing me and the profession of teaching, saying we got it easy, we get
all these vacations and lotsa time off, and cushy pensions to boot. Inevitably, I hear it at least
once a year, usually from some random contact with a moron who mouths off loud enough so that I
could hear them.
That happened this evening. Waiting behind two 30-ish aged dudes at the supermarket, I overheard
them discussing how educators (in particular, college professors) got this lush lifestyle. They
show up to class 5 times a week for one hour. Sit in their room another 5 hours, and then chill at
home or the beach or the coffee shop the rest of their life. Then they get a pension that is more
than most middle class Americans.
Well, yea but, so fucking what. The educational investment that went into this perceived lifestyle
in and of itself is what the discussion should be. Humans teaching and training the next generation
is what we mean about education. You want computers to take over. Realize that behind the computer
is a firm that gets paid to run and implement the computer. Rather than a single individual who
connects with individual students, you get homogenized product interfacing with humans without the
ability to sense those students humanity. Is that a good thing? Will that actually produce better
outcomes?
And here’s a big fat bitch slap. I work a minimum of 60 hours a week during the school year -- and
more usually something north of 65 hours a week (mind you I am not alone, this is true for a large
majority of K-12 teachers). Now I do work only 36 weeks per year — ignoring the prep time during
summer, as well the inevitable and guaranteed grading of papers during and on “vacation” days.
Let’s do a comparison. Take a teacher who works 36 weeks and averages 60 hours per week (ignoring
the statements above). That is 36 times 60, or 2160 hours per year. Keep in mind this is the
absolute minimum. If we did 36 times 65 (more realistic) … we get 2340 hours per year.
Now compare this to a worker who does 40 hours per 5 day week with weekends free. Assume a 2 week
compilation of vacation days. So that means 50 weeks of hard work at an average of 40 hours per
week. Guess what? That is 2000 hours per year. 160 less than the minimum teacher, or 4 more weeks
of work per year. If we use the more realistic 2340 hours, that is 340 more hours per year - almost
9 more weeks per year !!!
Now tell me again that teachers are lucky and get all that time off. We actually work more hours
per year than someone who works 40 hours per week for 50 weeks out of the year (this is literally
what I told this punk in the grocery line by the way).
And my pension? My pension is in the hands of politically appointed directors who invest the
accumulated funds that teachers and school districts pay into the CalStrs program (CALifornia State
Teacher Retirement System). California has the best teacher pension system in the entire USA,
however, it is still run and directed by politically appointed directors.
Someone named Michelle Rhee who heads the corporate slush funded non-profit ideological institute of
Students-First has publicly stated that teachers should have their pensions eliminated. Apparently
this causes us to become complacent and lazy - which means a lot coming from a woman who literally
taped her students mouths with tape to keep them from talking, never realizing the insanity of this
method of classroom management because she is a self-loathing, amoral person who should have never
been allowed near children in the first place. But now that Michelle is married to ex-Sacramento
Mayor Kevin Johnson, who himself runs a charter school, she and her ilk are all about driving a
stake into the Public of “public” schools. They don’t want the lower and middle classes educated.
But that’s a discussion I will save for another day.
Thursday, 2 February 2017 at 5h 5m 44s
Why it will be wet tomorrow
Look at that fierce southern tail on this counter-clockwise spinning system.
Thursday, 2 February 2017 at 0h 48m 26s
Scott Pruitt Will Bring Arsenic Lead Mercury to your water and air
Kurt Eichenwald -- Senior writer at Newsweek and reporter for The New York Times since 1986 --
recently spleened a twitter
explosion on the insane disrespect Trump had when his first public address as President was before
the CIA Memorial Room.
"I am going to try to explain why there is so much outrage in the intelligence agencies about what
Trump did on Saturday in his CIA speech.
Imagine having a campaign rally at the National Cemetery. Or a cocktail fundraiser amid the grave
markers of US soldiers in Normandy. This "event'' Trump held, purportedly to greet CIA employees,
was in the Memorial Wall room, where 117 CIA employees who died in service to our country are
honored. Many more have died, and it takes special approval to receive a star on the wall or be
listed in the book, called the Book of Honor. Many of the names of the fallen will never be known,
because their identities have to be kept secret even in death. Rarely is that room used for
anything, but when it is, solemn nature of it is recognized. GW Bush was, I believe the first
president to hold an event there in 2001, but it was exceedingly respectful and in keeping with the
meaning of the room.
The second major event was an appearance by Obama after the killing of Bin Laden, when he went to
the CIA to thank the ppl there for their often anonymous sacrifices that led to that success in the
fight against terrorism. Again, solemn and fitting with the meaning of the room. Both Bush and Obama
paid deep homage to those honored in the book and by the stars. CIA employees listened respectfully,
but did not turn the events into rallies.
Then, Trump.
He has the audacity to bring people from his team to cheer for him and sit in the front rows. I
can't imagine CIA employees cheering and whooping it up at Memorial Wall. It would be like screaming
"BOO-yah!" at a funeral . Trump made a single, over-the-shoulder mention of the stars. But he spent
most of his time griping about the media, bragging about the number of times he had been on the
cover of Time Magazine, and complaining that everyone was lying about numbers at his inauguration
and all the while, his professional cheerleaders who couldn't find their way to the CIA bathroom are
sitting there, cheering for the many who apparently needs applause everywhere he goes.
It was an abomination, perhaps the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen done by any president
in that kind of place.
I felt sure we would hear from former director Brennan pretty fast. Why? Because one of those stars
on the wall belongs to a close friend of his who died in service of this country. And he knows who
all the others are as well. For him, I'm sure, it was like watching someone having a picnic on the
graves in the National Cemetery. And then the same Trump staff that was too lazy or stupid to do the
advance work on the CIA trip, so that they knew the meaning of the wall, go on TV to attack Brennan
as a partisan hack for wanting a room of such enormous meaning to be treated with the solemnity it
deserves.
And that is an important element here. I actually don't blame Trump for this horror show on
Saturday. Few people outside of government know the meaning of the wall. That was his staff's job,
and they clearly had no idea what they were sending Trump to do. No sane person would agree to send
a cheering squad. They are incompetent. Worse, they are arrogant, and respond to others pointing out
their undeniable errors by attacking and whining.
No, anger at the dishonoring of patriots who died is not partisan. You don't want criticism? Do your
jobs better and when you screw up, like you did by turninga most solemn place in intel world as a
rah-rah location, just admit it, apologize, and move on."