21 February 2013

One cannot make this stuff up

Greetings good people.
Yes, another rant from the old guy (me). I'll try and not go on so long as I recently did. I admit the post of 15 February 2013 WAS probably over long. Well, I felt some things needed to be said and did not intend to go so long, but, well, I do that at times.
This actually came as real news to me, you see I do not watch Faux Noise, MSNBC, or even CNN at home. Once in a great while we may put CNN or its companion, "Headline News" on the tube to check some email/web article that is "breaking". More often, it will be the Weather channel as our weather in central Louisiana is very "changeable"; if you don't like our weather, just wait a few minutes, is a very common phrase around here.
Well, back to the "news to me". It comes via Glenn Greenwald now at the Guardian in the UK. He lets us who do NOT watch MSNBC know that old Rev. Al Sharpton had a "spirited debate" (Mr. Greenwalds' comment, not mine) about "dear leader", Gobomber (drone "king"?) and maybe Gobomber ought to have his place on Mount Rushmore or maybe "deserves" his very own special monument. No kidding. Mr. Greenwald provides links to this news item. Here is the link to his story on this;MSNBC
OK, now, ask yourself a question. Could you make this stuff up and have anybody think it was true? Would you? If so, why? Just for Lolz? OK, I'll but that, maybe. And yet, some wonder why so many refuse to even tune to any TV "news" station in the US of A. LOLMAO! There is NO news on the TV in old America. No, what 'Merikkka does get is "news". Oh sure, whenever there is some mass shooting of some school/shopping mall/work place in the US of A, there is coverage, but NOT when it comes to what the people really need to know. How about the truth about the housing market in America? ROFL! Just ask Mike Whitney how many "news" outlets are phoning him for his views on that one. Hey Mike, how many calls waiting do you get every hour? Yeah, I thought so.
My point there is that he should have some "real" news outlet, as in TV/radio station and/or newspaper asking him to at least re post what he does get posted to oh, Counterpunch or any web site that still posts his articles. I don't single Mike out just because we have had rather pleasant email exchanges going back years, but because I think he needs to be exposed to a wider audience. The SAME goes for John Francis Lee and his excellent web site robinlea. And yes, I do have links to those wen sites on the main page of my "redesigned" blog. I hope this design makes for easier reading for all.

I may as well keep with my "apple polishing" and again tell you that for some excellent fiction as well as good commentary, check out Bill the Butcher. Again, links are on the right side of this page. The links I give here are those I read daily and trust, mostly. I do not agree with all that I read on theses sites, but I do find them to be mostly honest and I think I need to read opinion(s) that I do not always agree with. Man, if all I did was go to sites/read authors that I agree with, I'd be bored to death long before lunch time.

The other story, or non-story if you will (business as usual?) was about Nancy Pelosi says it is A-OK by her if our drone "king" ever decides to drone a US citizen on American soil AND if the drone king "decides" he must keep it all secret, well, she is 100% "on board" with that as well. No kidding folks.
Well, my attempt to link failed. At the Antiwar web site (link at right), the entry is dated 19 Feb 2013 by John Glaser, title; Nancy Pelosi:Obama Can Execute Americans In Secret. And here we are, still thinking that the members of both houses of congress(yes, still in lower case) work for the people. Well, they Do, just the people they do work for have more money/wealth than most of us, yes dear reader, you and me, can even dream of. In short, madam Pelosi (with deep apologies to any "real" madams out there) work for the very rich and to hell with us common/working class and poor people. We can be droned any time, anywhere, no matter, no "judicial review" needed. Oh, and no warning that you may or may not be on some "kill list" either, hey, the drone king needs to keep that stuff top secret. National security ya know. You betcha'. Ain't old 'Merikkka just a grand place? Oh, hell yeah!

Well, that will end this rant. I did say I'd try not to go on and on, so. Stay safe people. Thank you for your time. Until the next rant, be nice to each other.
semper fi

8 comments:

Bill the Butcher said...

News these days is a consumer product like toothpaste or breakfast cereal, and tailored accordingly to suit market tastes. Only after a complete economic collapse where the mega corporations vanish might we expect to see real news again.

Thanks for the praise. Again.

charlie ehlen said...

Bill,
Exactly. Also, why what passes as news is so useless.
My opinion, your writing is worth all the praise I can give and more. I think you are an excellent story teller.
Oh, and your non-fiction commentary is great also. I just call it how I see it.

john francis lee said...

Every time I read about Pelosi, the Representative of all the 'progressives' in Silicon Valley, I remember that they chose her over Cindy Sheehan when they had the chance. People abroad wonder why nothing changes in America ... it's because Americans don't want anything to change. They like things just the way they are ... or they are so terrified of change that they'll happily eat shit and bark at the moon, if that's what it takes to keep change from happening.

Thanks for the plug, Charlie. If anyone should come to my site and find me annoying ... don't blame Charlie.

charlie ehlen said...

John,
Yes, what passes as liberal or even progressive in the old US of A today is crap and worse.
There is no liberal or progressive allowed in congress. We are ruled by two houses of neo's. Neo-lib, or neo-con, and, as with the two wings of the war party, the neo's appear as the two sides of the very same coin. In fact, one might say that the neo's are THE two sides and the animal references of past times are now "quaint" and out of date. This IS the "digital"/information age or so I have seen somewhere.
I have nearly finished the intro to the Fanon book on your site. With that as a start, the rest must be very good indeed.

john francis lee said...

' Sometimes the Left scolds them ... “You're going too far; we won't support you any more.”

' The natives don’t give a damn about their support; for all the good it does them they might as well stuff it up their backsides ...

' There is one duty to be done, one end to achieve: to thrust out colonialism by every means in their power. '

Substitute corporatism for colonialism and it's good to go today, Charlie. I like Fanon's "natives", the colonial term he's defiantly embraced. It still applies as well, if we see the corporatists as the aliens they are, the colonial "settlers" of planet earth.

The above is just Sartre reacting to Fanon. Fanon is the author of the book. It turned into a 'page-turner' for me. Once I began reading Fanon's words it was hard to stop. Even in translation his urgency comes through, He died about six months after tWotE, in Washington DC ... packed off by the CIA.

charlie ehlen said...

John,
Yes,the introduction alone makes me certain the actual book will be more than I had ever thought it might be. To have Sartre give such an intro, well, the book IS a must read. Now, to set aside some quality time for reading.

charlie ehlen said...

John,
LOL,oh boy, I can be so slow at times.
I refer to your comment that if any of those who read the old corner find you/your site to be annoying, not to blame me. LOL, IF after reading my rants, I fail to see how yourt posts could be annoying in any way.
No, never annoying John. Make me stop and think, yes. That is always a very good thing.

john francis lee said...

Hi Charlie,

I've noticed that your rss feed hasn't been loading the last couple of days.

I googled about and discovered that Facebook and Twitter killed off rss feeds about a year ago and now google seems to have followed suit.

Google bought up the biggest 'independent' rss 'supplier', feedburner - so they could kill it!

The mob doesn't like open standards they cannot control.

Would you consider making a mailing list of your 'regulars' email address and blasting off a single email to all of us when you've made a new post?

I'm sure there's no way for you to contact blogger.com and ask them what's up.

That's the beauty of 'free' ,.. the dataflow is all one-way !

They don't tell ya nothin' ! ... 'cuz whaddaya want for free?!