Tide is out, so I just took the doggos for a good walk on the beach and watched the sun set. That was after a nice long bike ride up to Encinitas. Still doesn’t suck here.
A capitalist economy NEEDS unemployed people. They're the reserve workforce that enables flexibility and expansion of business. It's only reasonable they be compensated for that, just as people on call are compensated even if they aren't called in (or should be).
92 years ago Great Grandpa Bacon with Grandma & Grandpa Bacon were the field marshalls organizing the CIO in Beaver County PA for the USWA, UE and UAW. They were also siding with George Howard Earle's campaign the be the first Democratic governor elected in Pennsylvania since the turn of the century.
Mill owners had their private militia of Pinkertons hell bent on breaking the union drive recruiting scabs and believe it or not Boy Scouts to break the union drives. Eventually they failed thanks to the passage of the Wagner Act and the absolute solidarity John L Lewis of the UMW had with the CIO.
Now that is family history to be proud of. Thank you for providing the previously unknown to me facts of interest regarding the Boy Scouts. (No surprise to learn that former WI Gov. Scott Walker was an Eagle Scout, as it explains his "Hitler Youth" vibe during the years he trashed my home state).
Not sure if true but I believe I read somewhere that Baden-Powell started the BS in response to the privations suffered by the British troops (no fieldcraft skills) in the Boer War.
Bit more complex. He started a informal cadet militia comprised of boys during the Siege of Mafeking. When he got back to Blighty he published a book on 'scouting' in the sense of irregular troops with said skills. He then blended the two ideas to form a boys cadet corp suitable for the military. He then married his first cousin.
I recall reading an article a few years back that indicated at one point the LDS church had a pretty strong grip on the Boy Scouts (lots of Mormons in the organization, for whatever reason).
Some of them can be very.....regimented, let us just say.
At that time Pennsylvania didn't have a Secret Ballot law. Voters would ask for a colored slip to cast their vote which was put in a glass jar. Pink (as in Pink Slip) was Democrat, Green was Republican, Yellow was Socialist and Purple was Prohibition. The slip was numbered and a numbered list was kept by the election clerk.
After the election a mill inspector would review the ballots and anyone who did not cast a Green ballot for the GOP was FIRED on the spot.
That STOPPED when the Democrats got the Governorship and both houses of the State legislature and Governor Earle signed the Ballot Act guaranteeing a secret ballot dropped in a metal box and outlawing the practice of colored ballots and mill owners couldn't fire anyone based on their vote.
But your consciousness has to be transferred into a body that's been specifically bioengineered for a particular offworld environment ... and not necessarily a human body either, which they maybe don't tell you about in advance ...
Interesting! In my head I was just continuing my own premise along those lines, but in the opposite. Perhaps there are classist and wealth-oriented tiers for immigration and you are given more information about and control over body selection if you are rich, whereas the poor know virtually nothing and are given new bodies by random lottery. Some get lucky, although most do not ...
That would make more sense, considering our current society.
However, there's a story idea that's been taking up space in the Room of Infinite Monkeys, and I think I might be able to do something with it thanks to this conversation.
My paternal grandfather's side of the family had an interesting history. From England, to Barbados in the 1700's, to Philadlephia when the US Civil War interrupted sugar trade around 1860. Supposedly, my forebears in Barbados were shopkeepers, but they undoubtedly lived off the sugar cane trade and slavery.
This makes me wonder if they are asking people in red states where it seems to me they care a lot less about the citizenry, see children getting no food for lunch as one example. If you ask people who are living in states where the state government's goal is to shit on them Oh, abortion one more example, then yeah everything feels bad.
So we just started a new thing where you can sign petitions (to get people on the ballot) online--YAY, right? Except they don't have my position there, so I can't sign up--I didn't think it was a big deal because how do you tell people to go on the Secretary of State's website and find your thing and sign, but it's freaking me out because they're acting like I don't have to run, but I DO.
I believe it was voted on in the last election requiring you to run in the first election after your appointment. Tell that secretary of state to look at the ballot measure from I think two years ago
That's true--it's just funny (terrifying) that they don't seem to realize that--everyone I call is like, no, you're fine. I'm like, I READ the law. I am NOT fine. I want our secretary of state to come to my home, in person, and tell me what she wants and until then I'm not sleeping!
I always confirm how old I am when I see what number the superb owl is this year. And my birfday is really close to the date too, usually the same week. (and no, Diane, I'm not telling you when that is, I already told you my mothers maiden name and the last 4 of my SSN, isn't that enough?)
I've got to go for the 49ers because I know the father of one of the players and he's about the nicest, coolest people I've ever met, outside my dad, grandpa, and husband.
Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback of the Chiefs, for those unaware. His father, whoever he is, doesn't want to sit in the same fancy-shmancy viewing box as Taylor Swift. So it goes.
I'd put forth the fall really started happening under Tommy Thompson but especially in the mid-2000's once Scott Walker was elected things exponentially went into the toilet.
I still remember growing up when Wisconsin was a bastion of Progressivism and even socialism (See Milwaukee's string of mayors in the early 20th century) with such stalwarts as "Fighting Bob" LaFollette and Frank Zeidel. It makes this son of the Northwoods sad and tired that my once great state has fallen so far. That said, I hold out hope, Evers has been a good governor all things considered and perhaps if Wisconsin manages to un-gerrymander itself it can get back on the course. It's going to be a very long road though.
Hell, the Texas Panhandle, of all places, was a hotbed of progressivism at one time. Woody Guthrie lived in Pampa for a while, fer cryin' out loud. I don't see it getting back on course, though. The area's been completely MAGA-fied and I'm not sure there's any way to reverse a plunge that precipitous.
Well, we probably should have seen this coming. UN aid workers in Gaza helped plan and participated in Hamas's 10/7 terrorist attack. The question now is whether the entire UNRWA aid agency is just completely tainted with violent anti-Israel sentiment. I'm betting yes.
U.N. to Investigate Claim That Employees Participated in Oct. 7 Attack
The United States temporarily cut off funding to UNRWA, the agency that aids Palestinians, citing allegations that 12 of its workers were involved in the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel.
This happens in every conflict. In Somalia the warlords would confiscate half the food aid, sell it for $ to buy weapons, and only allow the rest to be given to friendlies.
Not knowing anything about this, I'm wondering if these allegations are true, and also whether these workers might have been locals hired by the UN, acting outside any UN control. Truth is the first casualty ...
Yeah, it is inevitable in any region where there is an insurgency or active terrorist groups that UN aid efforts would employ lots of locals and some of them would be the bad guys. I would guess there is no practical way to eliminate that. It is the nature of the game.
UNRWA should never have existed. All other refugees in the world are handled by the UN High Commission on Refugees, who try to resettle refugees instead of keeping them in squalid camps to be used as weapons against Israel. Because of UNRWA, there are fourth-and fifth-generation Palestinian refugees.
Tide is out, so I just took the doggos for a good walk on the beach and watched the sun set. That was after a nice long bike ride up to Encinitas. Still doesn’t suck here.
A capitalist economy NEEDS unemployed people. They're the reserve workforce that enables flexibility and expansion of business. It's only reasonable they be compensated for that, just as people on call are compensated even if they aren't called in (or should be).
As Karl Marx observed: they form the Reserve Army of the Unemployed. Marx was an acute observer.
His solutions sucked, but he was indeed a keen observer.
UBI: universal basic income. It’s not just a good idea, it should be the law.
Especially if AI is going to take all the jerbs.
"This was the government giving people undeserved benefits to the lazy."
More like the government taking money from the wealthy.
Taking from the Idle Rich to give to the lazy folk?
Wild-eyed Commie Radical Peter Drucker stated in one of his books that the primary goal of government is the redistribution of wealth. Downward.
Because all those second generation gilded age robber barons worked sooooooo hard for their money.
It's hard to exploit people that aren't desperate.
Zthe Mona Lisa got souped....
As opposed to schtupped?
She has to be hungry.
R.I.P. Melanie Safka, 1947-2024
Singer-songwriter, "Brand New Key" "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" and others.
https://youtu.be/WmEIReErR8k?si=hyCO6SuJ_6XxrkNZ
Featured on our Woodstock and Beyond show last night.
She was a good singer.
Shite.
Newport County 2-4 Manchester United, final. Man U advances to the fifth round in the English FA Cup.
The Foxes did, too.
And here I though Arsenal was the supervillain of the English FA.
92 years ago Great Grandpa Bacon with Grandma & Grandpa Bacon were the field marshalls organizing the CIO in Beaver County PA for the USWA, UE and UAW. They were also siding with George Howard Earle's campaign the be the first Democratic governor elected in Pennsylvania since the turn of the century.
Mill owners had their private militia of Pinkertons hell bent on breaking the union drive recruiting scabs and believe it or not Boy Scouts to break the union drives. Eventually they failed thanks to the passage of the Wagner Act and the absolute solidarity John L Lewis of the UMW had with the CIO.
Now that is family history to be proud of. Thank you for providing the previously unknown to me facts of interest regarding the Boy Scouts. (No surprise to learn that former WI Gov. Scott Walker was an Eagle Scout, as it explains his "Hitler Youth" vibe during the years he trashed my home state).
" Grandma & Grandpa Bacon were the field marshalls"
But who were the Sky Marshalls?
John L Lewis and the United Mineworkers who endlessly volunteered to take on the strikebreakers
I was always suspicious about that Scab Merit Badge
No surprise about the Boy Scouts. That org has always been about guns, power and control
Not sure if true but I believe I read somewhere that Baden-Powell started the BS in response to the privations suffered by the British troops (no fieldcraft skills) in the Boer War.
Bit more complex. He started a informal cadet militia comprised of boys during the Siege of Mafeking. When he got back to Blighty he published a book on 'scouting' in the sense of irregular troops with said skills. He then blended the two ideas to form a boys cadet corp suitable for the military. He then married his first cousin.
We had two kinds of Scoutmasters
The cool Prof types who wanted to go hiking in the Sierras.
The Hitler Jugend Sturmbannfuhrer types
I went into the Civil Air Patrol.
Less ambiguous.
I recall reading an article a few years back that indicated at one point the LDS church had a pretty strong grip on the Boy Scouts (lots of Mormons in the organization, for whatever reason).
Some of them can be very.....regimented, let us just say.
BSA basically became the LDS youth movement.
which is why my Socialist Party Mom and Dad would NEVER let me join the Scouts...
It's so weird to me that the Boy Scouts are largely (now) a right wing organization, and the Girl Scouts are a liberal one.
Track's .. The Girl Scouts focus is to encourage one to be independent as a person, work with others and be self sufficient.
Pretty much a liberal goal... No matter what your sex.
At that time Pennsylvania didn't have a Secret Ballot law. Voters would ask for a colored slip to cast their vote which was put in a glass jar. Pink (as in Pink Slip) was Democrat, Green was Republican, Yellow was Socialist and Purple was Prohibition. The slip was numbered and a numbered list was kept by the election clerk.
After the election a mill inspector would review the ballots and anyone who did not cast a Green ballot for the GOP was FIRED on the spot.
That STOPPED when the Democrats got the Governorship and both houses of the State legislature and Governor Earle signed the Ballot Act guaranteeing a secret ballot dropped in a metal box and outlawing the practice of colored ballots and mill owners couldn't fire anyone based on their vote.
Wait.
What does "Upgrade to Founding" mean?
If you push buttons just to find out what happens,
and you push that button you get 5 petal red flower
and $240 [I think} out of your bank account.
*I did this the first weeks on subsnax, pushed the button and whooopsies
Rebecca fixed it for me as I was having a real time melt down in the comment
I think it was V4V that emailed Rebecca for me, I love you Wonks!]
SubSlack Torpor.
"what does that button/emoji doooo?"
"Idn, let's see, what's the worse that could happen!!!??"
I did learn a lot that first month just clicking on shit
NO FEAR!!
THE HISTORY ERASER BUTTON!!!!
If you already donate to Wonkette elsewise (i.e., not through Substack), you don't need to worry about any of the moneybeg buttons.
Oh I know, was being silly and clever.
Okay mostly silly
Sorry! Lots of stuff on Substack is new, including some names I either don't know or don't remember!
I think you need a screw driver or something like that for it?
"Service Means Citizenship"
"Would you like to know more?"
"I'm doing my part!"
"Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today!"
It means you can get by fine on one kidney
Substack wants more money.
If it means being fitted for cement overshoes, I'm out.
I dunno but it's a pretty good working title for a sci-fi novel
"A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies!"
But your consciousness has to be transferred into a body that's been specifically bioengineered for a particular offworld environment ... and not necessarily a human body either, which they maybe don't tell you about in advance ...
But will "awareness" transfer????????????????????/
Sounds like an updating of Rawls' thought experiment about designing a just society.
Interesting! In my head I was just continuing my own premise along those lines, but in the opposite. Perhaps there are classist and wealth-oriented tiers for immigration and you are given more information about and control over body selection if you are rich, whereas the poor know virtually nothing and are given new bodies by random lottery. Some get lucky, although most do not ...
I became a complicated sewage system...so satisfying!
That would make more sense, considering our current society.
However, there's a story idea that's been taking up space in the Room of Infinite Monkeys, and I think I might be able to do something with it thanks to this conversation.
$240/annum
Or $20 a month, same as downtown
But why would I pay $240 to a club that would have me as a member?
This week's university work looks interesting.
'Caribbean slavery: survival, resistance and the making of freedom, 1760-1838'
Oh noes! WOKE INDOCTRINATION! Nobody tell the Republikkkans!
I would love to learn more about that.
My paternal grandfather's side of the family had an interesting history. From England, to Barbados in the 1700's, to Philadlephia when the US Civil War interrupted sugar trade around 1860. Supposedly, my forebears in Barbados were shopkeepers, but they undoubtedly lived off the sugar cane trade and slavery.
Molasses to Rum to Slaves
The Infernal Triangle
I'm guessing there will be sideboob
I'd love to see a GOP MAGAt try to argue with a Jamaican citizen about slavery.
"But the slaves learned useful skills!!!"
Like how to avoid getting your fingernails chewed to the shoulder by the sugar cane crusher.
Gee, that’s a real mystery, Jon Karl. 🤔 Tell us why the you think the “vibes” don’t match reality?
——————-
“ABC’s Jon Karl Stops Gavin Newsom After He Claims Biden Has ‘The Best 3-Year Record’ of Any Modern President: Why’s His Approval ‘Historically Low?’”
https://www.mediaite.com/news/abcs-jon-karl-stops-gavin-newsom-after-he-claims-biden-has-the-best-3-year-record-of-any-modern-president-whys-his-approval-historically-low/
Jon Karl gets his paychecks signed by Mickey Mouse’s boss. Just like Thanos
This makes me wonder if they are asking people in red states where it seems to me they care a lot less about the citizenry, see children getting no food for lunch as one example. If you ask people who are living in states where the state government's goal is to shit on them Oh, abortion one more example, then yeah everything feels bad.
The same Jon Karl who endlessly beat the Benghazi drum for Romney in 2012...
Because the fickle US media has been MAGA'ed up one side and down the other.
Because GQp shitbirds like Jon Karl want it that way and they will manipulate anything to get it that way.
Because y'all only ever ask those same five guys you keep finding in a diner in rural Ohio at 3:17 on a Thursday afternoon?
Newsome should have responded with “Why do YOU think?”
Because the media keeps beating the Doom Drums?
Because people answer polls like a bunch of Bozos.
Because most people in this country *are* a bunch of droolingly stupid Bozos. Or at least a good chunk of them.
OT--they don't think that I'm a real person!
So we just started a new thing where you can sign petitions (to get people on the ballot) online--YAY, right? Except they don't have my position there, so I can't sign up--I didn't think it was a big deal because how do you tell people to go on the Secretary of State's website and find your thing and sign, but it's freaking me out because they're acting like I don't have to run, but I DO.
I believe it was voted on in the last election requiring you to run in the first election after your appointment. Tell that secretary of state to look at the ballot measure from I think two years ago
That's true--it's just funny (terrifying) that they don't seem to realize that--everyone I call is like, no, you're fine. I'm like, I READ the law. I am NOT fine. I want our secretary of state to come to my home, in person, and tell me what she wants and until then I'm not sleeping!
For errybody who likes the NFL:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=NFL+today
Chiefs - Ravens starts at 3:00 PM.
Lions - Niners is at 6:30 PM.
The Superb Owl is on Feb. 11, 2024.
I think Mr. Goat has the sadz cuz' we don't get whatever stations these games are on...
Me either 😞
You don't get Fox or CBS?
I always confirm how old I am when I see what number the superb owl is this year. And my birfday is really close to the date too, usually the same week. (and no, Diane, I'm not telling you when that is, I already told you my mothers maiden name and the last 4 of my SSN, isn't that enough?)
SF Detroit is 3:30 Pacific, just to be clear.
1500 Eastern time, NFL Network (channel 95 on my cable system).
There's Sportsball today?
Morning Birb! Chirrrup!!!!!
Heeeeeeey
thamks birb!
A thamnk also
Huzzah. I have chips, dip, and the makings for a nice cocktail; also too a tasty sub sammich for dins.
I've got to go for the 49ers because I know the father of one of the players and he's about the nicest, coolest people I've ever met, outside my dad, grandpa, and husband.
It's gonna be 70 and sunny in Santa Clara, go Niners!
Drat. That's my birthday! My two teams are no where to be seen!
I like the Giants.
We stunk this year. I'll be rooting for the Chiefs.
I knew I liked you!
You're rooting for a team whose logo features bird parts used as ornamentation vs a team of badass birds?
Heeeeee
My 90 yo mom thinks Patrick Mahomes is cute....
Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback of the Chiefs, for those unaware. His father, whoever he is, doesn't want to sit in the same fancy-shmancy viewing box as Taylor Swift. So it goes.
She should just buy the damned team and kick him out of the skybox or whatever they call them.
Dads, what are you gonna do??
I'm flying to Kansas City from LA that day. With a stop in Chicago, of course. Because it's BOGO Flyover Scenery Month
How far Wisconsin has fallen since 1932.
I'd put forth the fall really started happening under Tommy Thompson but especially in the mid-2000's once Scott Walker was elected things exponentially went into the toilet.
You're the local, so I'll trust your assessment.
With Bottomless Koch-Roach money
I still remember growing up when Wisconsin was a bastion of Progressivism and even socialism (See Milwaukee's string of mayors in the early 20th century) with such stalwarts as "Fighting Bob" LaFollette and Frank Zeidel. It makes this son of the Northwoods sad and tired that my once great state has fallen so far. That said, I hold out hope, Evers has been a good governor all things considered and perhaps if Wisconsin manages to un-gerrymander itself it can get back on the course. It's going to be a very long road though.
GOOGLE "SEWER SOCIALISTS"
Hell, the Texas Panhandle, of all places, was a hotbed of progressivism at one time. Woody Guthrie lived in Pampa for a while, fer cryin' out loud. I don't see it getting back on course, though. The area's been completely MAGA-fied and I'm not sure there's any way to reverse a plunge that precipitous.
They have, according to my bodycam research, very polite cops. I heard one use "DARN IT!" while pointing his Glock at a car thief>
Well, we probably should have seen this coming. UN aid workers in Gaza helped plan and participated in Hamas's 10/7 terrorist attack. The question now is whether the entire UNRWA aid agency is just completely tainted with violent anti-Israel sentiment. I'm betting yes.
U.N. to Investigate Claim That Employees Participated in Oct. 7 Attack
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/world/middleeast/un-aid-israel-oct-7-attacks.html
The United States temporarily cut off funding to UNRWA, the agency that aids Palestinians, citing allegations that 12 of its workers were involved in the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel.
This happens in every conflict. In Somalia the warlords would confiscate half the food aid, sell it for $ to buy weapons, and only allow the rest to be given to friendlies.
Everyone else starved
Not knowing anything about this, I'm wondering if these allegations are true, and also whether these workers might have been locals hired by the UN, acting outside any UN control. Truth is the first casualty ...
Yeah, it is inevitable in any region where there is an insurgency or active terrorist groups that UN aid efforts would employ lots of locals and some of them would be the bad guys. I would guess there is no practical way to eliminate that. It is the nature of the game.
the older I get, the more often I encounter a thorough dismantling of what I'd once been led to believe was the immutable truth
We should keep distributing aid.
We have to give the task to maybe another non-gov agency?
UNRWA should never have existed. All other refugees in the world are handled by the UN High Commission on Refugees, who try to resettle refugees instead of keeping them in squalid camps to be used as weapons against Israel. Because of UNRWA, there are fourth-and fifth-generation Palestinian refugees.
Yeah. True.