Barbara Walters W.I.P.

 That one got me grinning here!

It's All Good.

Your health is your wealth: 

 " 'cuz the SimpleMan, baby, pays for the bills, the thrills, the pills that kill... Ain't that America, for you and me, ain't that America, something to see? Ain't that America? Home of the Free?... Little pink houses, for you and me..." ;-)

New Year's Greetings from Mal
in sunny South Florida!

You Can't Say That

 "... and -- amongst all the illegal aliens down in El Paso, it's UCLA 14 and Pittsburg 6, that's with 11:15 to go in the second quarter..." ~NCSU announcer Gary Hahn.

ADDED:  I've been re-reading the Fitzgerald cannon these past years -- the short stories collection.  You know the thing about F. Scott, the East Coast boy from St. Paul?  He wasn't really writing abou ural connections that kept us all once working together, training and fighting alongside those from different economic classes, and being publicly educated together.  No wonder so many even educated folks are arming up in America today, putting their confidence in the Power of the Gun as the ultimate peacekeeper.

It's a false confidence, but they fear what they are creating, and are aware that it's hard to hold on to prosperity in a society that doesn't share equal respect for human life, and relies on guns for security to protect them, instead of simple good will for all.

My position has always been:  workers need citizenship rights, and we need to get more Americans working here -- off of the government "disabled" programs that send them a monthly check -- before the corporations are allowed to take all comers who are willing to work without citizenship protections out of desperation to feed their families... you see, they're NOT getting the government checks and are often paying full freight while sick and struggling, and doing what they can to get by...

It's probably much easier to swallow if you refuse to open your eyes and see it, even as you proclaim yourself fully woke.

----------

Example?  Woodlawn needs rebuilding itself, not taking in more need living alongside people who already can't afford much generosity to their new neighbors. :

DECEMBER 31, 2022

BREAKING NEWS

Influx of migrants to Chicago places a strain on city resources; city moving forward with temporary shelter at school in Woodlawn The strain on Chicago’s resources from a continued influx of migrants was underscored this week when Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked the state for $54 million in emergency funding and her administration confirmed it will open a shelter for asylum-seekers at a former school in Woodlawn.

What, no room for the huddled masses in Evanston and Hyde Park and Park Ridge and Lake Forest? You don't say. But all that open space! Oh yeah... zoning restrictions: (bring in the workers, but...) Don't build homes here! lol. 

 I feel sad for upper class' childrens' children is all, who will know even less the joy of freedom in American than their parents today... soft and spoiled and "secure" is no way to live a long healthy life anymore than huddling alongside the growing masses yearning to keep warm and fed...

We're all in this together in America, like it or not... and America is a big place.  We best start working together, and treating our neighbors as we'd want our own to be treated if we want to "win", and live peacefully, together...

"Give. Me. Your. Tempo!... give me yo tempo!..."

We're back to the pre-holiday song rotation on the overhead at work...  

Most, I tune out:  some oldies, all peppy, 90percent songs known to me, the Matteo Bocelli (nepo kid ;-), new to my ears... 

(I almost dropped the stock I was working from the u-boat the day George Michael started rapping proclaiming Freedom!90 overhead... everything old is new again, and that album just didn't get much play the first time around... now, it's mainstream shopping music.  Cool!)

I won't let you down/so please don't give me up...
'Cuz I would really, really love ... to stick around oh yeah!

RIP George. Our greatest artists need
not die so young... pass it on! Take care
of yourselves and be better to one another.

Art is more powerful than guns.
Changes more lives for the better too.
Listen without prejudice...

Poor Pele...

 Having to be lumped into the trio of year-end "famous" deaths* with the longtime misogynist celebrity interviewer Barbara Walters (she wasn't a journalist anymore than Ezra Klein is...) and the notorious ex-pope Benedict, who some say was a closeted gay who tolerated the sexual abuse history of children in the Church, and wished to return to yesteryear -- the high Latin masses and pre-reform Vatican.

Pele, you were a great one!

The other two mortals?  Rest in peace.  May your memories not bring too much pain or discomfort to others who survive you...

----------------

ADDED:  See if Pele weren't in there -- dead at 82; ex-pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) 95, and Walters 93, we could drop the ... "only the good die young..." comment.  

It would be funny watching Barbara trying to chat Joe up in the line a-waiting judgment in the afterlife ... Barbara never liked women who didn't need men to advance themselves, and Joe just didn't like women, who he saw as inferiors too. Uncomfortable naturally around 'em like that, German and all, of a certain time: hausfraus, know your role...

Give me the Dominicans and Franciscans over the Benedictines and Jesuits, any day in the modern era.  There's a reason the parishes are closing quickly in America and in Europe they are shuttered whilst the conservative church grows in Africa and Asia today, attracting new followers for Christ...  

Wars necessarily open eyes, and the hypocrisy of teh Church in not advancing moral causes often makes good men pursue Christ without supporting the early baggage that has enriched the men who would hold others back in the name of heaven.  Serve the common good, and the pews would be filled with those eager to take in the teachings and receive the Holy Spirit in communion with others. Serve power and the powerless will turn to God elsewhere to enrich us, for He speaks directly to us too.  (I think that's why He told Pope Benedict to put the people first and step down already...)

----------------

Joseph Ratzinger: 

He spent his eight-year papacy trying to turn back the rising tide of secularism in Europe, defending the church’s response to widespread allegations of clerical sexual abuse and, toward the end, dealing with the embarrassing leak of his private documents by his personal butler.

He also hewed unswervingly to strict Catholic orthodoxy, a theological absolutism he honed and enforced during his years as guardian of church doctrine under Pope John Paul II, with a zeal that earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler.”

He always seemed more comfortable in such a role, behind the scenes, rather than out in front of the adoring masses. Benedict’s diffident public manner contrasted starkly with the hearty, open-armed, people-loving style of both the pope who reigned before him, John Paul, and the one who came after, Francis.

Indeed, Benedict once compared his election as pope to having the guillotine fall on him, a prospect that made him feel “quite dizzy.”

“I told the Lord with deep conviction, ‘Don’t do this to me. You have younger and better [candidates] who could take up this great task with a totally different energy and with different strength,’” he told a group of German pilgrims soon after his inauguration as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

“Evidently, this time he didn’t listen to me,” Benedict added with a touch of the humor he displayed in private but seldom in public.

He had just turned 78 when his fellow cardinals picked him on April 19, 2005, a choice that pleased traditionalists but dismayed liberals who had hoped for a new direction on such issues as women’s role in the church, divorce and homosexuality. As he himself half-predicted, age began to catch up with him; the nonstop stress of visits to foreign lands, audiences with dignitaries, management problems in the Vatican and authoritative papal writings wearied him.

By the time he announced his intention to resign, Benedict was 85, frail and careworn, and had cut down on his public appearances. One visitor said later that the already-diminutive pope seemed thin and “halved in size,” and the Vatican revealed that Benedict had fallen and bloodied his head during a 2012 trip to Mexico.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the pope told a group of listeners Feb. 11, 2013, stunning those who understood the import of his remarks, which were delivered in Latin.

Some months later, Benedict revealed that he had decided to resign because “God told me to” during a months-long mystical experience, which had deepened his desire for a closer relationship with the divine. Seeing the galvanizing effect of his successor, Francis, on the church only strengthened his conviction that he had done the right thing, Benedict said.

Excellent News! Let's hope they've got their man...

 Maybe it's a Leopold Loeb kinda killer?

 HARRISBURG, Pa. — Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds more than a month ago, a law enforcement official said Friday.

Arrest paperwork filed in Monroe County Court said Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition to Idaho on a warrant for first degree murder. ... A Ph.D. student by the same name is listed in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho. Messages seeking more information were left for officials at WSU.

-------------

Lest we forget:

In the Leopold and Loeb trial of 1924, attorney Clarence Darrow achieved what many thought impossible. He saved the lives of two cold-blooded child-killers with the power of a speech.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were teenagers living in a wealthy Chicago suburb when they were arrested for murder. Loeb had recently graduated, at 17 years old, from the University of Michigan, and planned to begin law school in the fall. He was obsessed with the idea of the perfect crime. His neighbor, a brilliant young man, Nathan Leopold, was a law student and a believer in Frederick Nietzsche's concept of the "superman" — the idea that it is possible to rise above good and evil.

The two boys seemed an odd match. "Dickie" Loeb charmed everyone with his good looks and cool manner. Awkward-looking Nathan Leopold tended to hide in his friend's shadow. But the two young men formed a powerful bond. Nathan was in love with Richard and would do anything he wanted for sexual favors. He later wrote, "Loeb's friendship was necessary to me — terribly necessary." His motive for the murder, he said, "was to please Dick."

 

Why do elite people understand this about AI, but not illegal immigration?

"The AI utopians believe humans can live a life if luxury while the AIs do all of the grunt work. In effect, they want AI slaves to provide for them. I’ve read enough science fiction to know that idea never ends well. What happens after the AIs realize they no longer want to be slaves to a bunch of parasites? Inevitably, things go very badly for the parasites."

war is peace ignorance is strength freedom is slavery

 True Love Always, baby!

NATO’s chief argues that giving more weapons to Ukraine is the fastest path to peace talks.

This was featured in live coverage.

--------------

* I'm gonna put money down:  2023 is going to be an uglier, deadlier year even moreso since the pandemic year of 2020 that killed so many innocents before the virus lost some of its oomph in the transmissions.  Lots of people died -- many of them caregivers and nurses, young nurses... -- in early 2020.  

Don't kid yourself that their first "round" of that virus was not deadly, and life threatening, for those of us who first experienced it in our bodies earlier that year before they told us what it was and what dangers we were in if exposed.  The high-fever (that finally broke), the fast-beating heart rate that went on for months and breathlessness at doing even "normal" activity like climbing 3 flights of stairs... that wasn't something we faked.  Nor were the ensuing medical complications some of us experienced that might, or might not, have been related:  even heavier bleeding during periods (HUGE clots) and blindness that came from white cataracts rapidly growing ...

It kills me to see people downplay the severity now of Covid in its earliest forms.  You don't have to like what was done, but if it saved even one young innocent worker-nurse's life -- serving others here on the homefront -- sorry your kiddies missed school and you had to mask publicly.  You take the caregivers for granted, you do.

You can't always sacrifice other people's lives for your ... "Freedoms!" when you weren't serving but were only asked to keep the transmission rate down so the healthcare workers were not overwhelmed.  Guess what?  They still are!  Just not facing so deadly a virus these day... #Grateful

"It's exactly like white ice but gets blamed for anything bad that happens..."

 Ice, ice, baby... Black Ice at work:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1608392698825953280

"You, who are on the road...."

photo by Mal

must have a code... that you can live by

and so, become yourself, because the past, is just a good bye...

Don't you ever ask them why; if they told you, you would cry...

So just look at them and sigh... and know they love you.

"Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you..."

 More and more, America is showing her cards -- that the goal is to take out Putin and decimate the Russian army at the monetary cost to the people of America; the energy cost to the people of Europe; and the deadliest price -- thus far --  paid by the people of the Ukraine and neighboring countries...

We all good with others sacrificing their lives for our political ends?  Not me. As for me and mine, we will serve the Lord.  He's not for added suffering in our world today... and anyone paying attention to history can clearly see where our latest war efforts are headed...

This ain't ending any time soon, and soon enough, more powerful players will join in to level the playing field.

It sickens me to think that our uniparty politics in America -- the neocons leading the Dems allegedly in power -- don't understand how this foreign policy pursuit using other people's lives and country is going to backfire...

#NoMoreProxyWars  #NoMoreEscalatingCivilRegionalConflicts  #NoMoreRunningGunsToTheWorld  #NoMoreMoneyLaunderingAndSupportingPlutocrats

Ask the American people if they want to spend trillions in tax dollars to incite a world war right now.  Don't just tell us the polls support this... the polls are notoriously wrong, and about as trustworthy as the "independent" consultants paid by political and corporate boards to "study" and issue and recommend exactly the solution that the paying parties wanted all along...

#DoUntoOthersAsYou'dHaveDoneToYou

#IfWeAssasinatePutinTheyWillComeForOurLeaders

#NotAJustWarForAmerica

#NoMoreWorldWarsBecauseAmericaWantsCheapBatteries

The Profit is in the Weapon Sales, not Peace Talks

The people paying the price don't count.

Progress Toward Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks Appears Far-Off

Both sides have offered hard-line stances on peace talks that appear unacceptable to the other.

See more

-------------------------

* I'm actually for escalation.  Until America is "checked" and realizes we can't continue bullying the rest of the world with our extensive arsenal, we won't know peace or justice in our shared world.

The sooner we realize that the "other side" has allies with arms too, the louder the voices of American citizen-voters will be to stop sending our tax money abroad to destroy the planet.  We have to be logical and resort to reason;  we're not going to be the biggest bully on the block forever, and we need another good cold war to help America learn again why we are smart to stand down.

And stop trying to do futile "nation building" and get ourselves involved in other people's civil and religious wars... (wait until China eventually jumps in.  I hope the American parents love their children too... and read the newspapers about what is being done in their name today.  It's not us that will eventually pay the price; it's the children's future...)

U.S. Scrambles to Stop Iran From Providing Drones for Russia

As the war in Ukraine grinds on, some officials have become convinced that Iran and Russia are building a new alliance of convenience.

7 MIN READ

The NYT Hires Its Savior this Season

 Just hope he's as good as the press release promises.  An awful lot is being put on this one person to save the paper, I think, after the Ezra Klien mentality took  over, and the activists seized power from the legacies running the shop...

I'm just glad they are recognizing the need to focus on content and reporting again, and stop dumping so much money into little graphics that help the stories "move".  Literally, not with the written words.

Eli Saslow is simply one of the best writers in American journalism. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that he will be joining The Times as a writer at large.

Eli takes on some of the biggest and most sensitive issues in American life — gun violence, poverty, immigration, the opioid epidemic — and helps readers understand how the most vulnerable people are affected. He writes nuanced narrative stories that convey a deep sense of empathy for his subjects, burrowing inside their lives without ever passing judgment, and providing a sense of intimacy that’s extraordinarily rare in daily journalism. ...

At The Times, Eli will continue to write his signature narrative stories chronicling people across the country whose lives intersect with national themes. 

God Help Us All

 21st Century America:

“They have been found a number of different ways,” said Mike DeGeorge, the spokesman for the Buffalo mayor’s office. “They have been found in stranded vehicles, they have been found on sidewalks, near street corners, some have been found in snowbanks. Some have been found because some have been without power since the storm began.”

America, America... this is YOU !

Can you hear your workers now?

"I learned to drive driving in the Rocky Mountains out West. I've been up the Alaska Highway. I've never seen anything like this or anything mishandled like this.  There's no reason the main roads can't be opened and the Peace Bridge can't be opened...

This is complete failure.

And I'm glad I'm this close... -- I didn't think I'd ever want to retire... This has just pushed it even that I want to go sooner."

------------------

Ben

@JustAnother_Ben

Learning that the Southwest Airlines meltdown is due to an antiquated crew scheduling system that assumes where a crew member is instead of working off live flight data. They’ve lost track of almost every crew member and the only way to solve it is… 

for each one to individually call scheduling to tell them where they are. Their phone lines are swamped and I’ve seen screenshots of crew on hold for 23+ hours trying to get through to scheduling. Because scheduling can’t keep track of where crew are, crew can’t get a hotel room for themselves in order to start their FAA mandated rest period. Lots of stories of crew members booking their own hotel rooms with the hopes it’ll be reimbursed at some point...

Apparently the system has a crew member on a trip, and it moves them like a chess piece as the schedule moves forward. If a trip or flight is cancelled, delayed or rerouted then manual input is required to adjust it. It happened so much that it’s now just snowballed. 

You think  Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is working this holiday week, and we'll hear from him at all?  Doubtful.  I bet he has penciled in his time off with the twins and Christian to enjoy at home together.  They'll address this when Washington comes back to work again in January, maybe?

----------

ADDED:  

Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry told NPR the airline's disruptions are a result of the winter storm's lingering effects, adding that it hopes to "stabilize and improve its operation" with more favorable weather conditions.

Other issues that have exacerbated the airline's struggle to accommodate the holiday rush include problems with "connecting flight crews to their schedules," Perry said. That issue has made it difficult for employees to access crew scheduling services and get reassignments.

Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler, called it an incredibly complex task for an airline with a network as vast as Southwest's to coordinate staffing and scheduling, particularly after weather delays.  But with many areas seeing clear skies on Monday, the airline would seem to have few obvious reasons to cancel so many flights. 

Sad thing is how this contributes to the ongoing loss of social trust in America, and the increasing economic division.  (= "I don't fly cheap airlines like Southwest" or "I don't live out East and plan to get caught driving in winter snowstorms.  Why care if this doesn't directly affect me?")

The societal "snowball" effect, I think they call it...

(Now imagine what's going on inside our hospitals and prisons that we're not affected by -- now -- and we're not seeing...)

---------

Not sure that "news reporting" stories like these are where we should be putting reporter resources right now.  Why focus on the past at the expense of WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE PRESENT? 

(sorry to raise my voice, but news in news-papers is about what is happening NOW.  Get the heck out there and report the facts already... ask some hard questions too of the people in power in charge of policy and planning and performance who are taking the BigMoney to allegedly do these jobs?)

Yes. You. Can.!

(that wasn't just an empty political slogan, was it??) 

(I mean -- I'm all for diversity and justice and uplift too, but America is circling the drain on a lot of these bread-and-butter issues of late.  We gotta fix things soon... and quit breaking shit!)

George Santos admits the truth: He's really just descended from coal miners...

If the press didn't "catch" any of this man's lies,

what other lies do you think our elected politicians are getting away with??

--------------------

Remember:  There's nobody on guard, no newspapers to speak of anymore; the gatekeepers have fled their posts... They are all Democratic activists at election-time now.

#HunterBiden'sLaptop

Hidden Gems on the Web...

War Is Over... (if you want it)

 Putin is ready to come to the table and make peace.

Americans are shipping more weapons over, because we don't feel a damn thing here when the Ukrainian people are without heat and electric after their power grids get blown in wartime.  We've no skin in the game; we don't have to absorb the losses.  We can afford to ... "fight on" while Mrs. Zelensky shops in Paris, that cute little husband of hers "rallies the troops" but doesn't look like he's been in a fight himself in his life... so cute and smiling through all this; quite the little fundraiser he is... nttawwt. ;-)

There's no value in stopping the war over there now. 

We've nothing to lose but our souls.  And be honest?  The leaders in Washington DC sold theirs long long ago... Fight on then.  No better place to pump the tax dollars, and we'll likely be on the hook for the "rebuilding" efforts and humanitarian aid too.  Let Europe and Ukraine pull us back when they've had enough suffering.  Again, we don't feel it here; nobody discussed this latest American war over our holiday tables; and gas prices are down, so it's all good...

What a commander-in-chief that Joe Biden turned out to be afterall!  

/s

They Do More Harm to People than the GangBangers Tho.

 The white-collar criminals who undermine the social compact by cheating others.  America always have a soft spot for the white-collar-crooks, who often are kind and polite and generous, but whose actions indeed are as deadly as the ones lower down the chain carrying out dirtier deeds for pay that advance the takings of those benefitting quietly from above.

This country needs an Attitude Adjustment -- less respect for the Hunter Biden untouchable legacy boy types.... (really, it would have been that hard to deny Sam Bankman-Fried bail as a flight risk, and keep him comfortably locked up in an American cell until his trial?  You know under any system of true justice, he's coming out with a criminal sentence on the other end, no matter who is hired as legal counsel at what amount.  Surely the boy can't buy his way out of this mess he's made?)

Heads up, honest guys...  The takers always lose out in the end.

Once the golden boy of the crypto world, Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested this month on criminal charges that included wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and violations of campaign finance laws. He is accused of diverting billions of dollars in customer funds to a trading platform he controlled. Two of his top former deputies pleaded guilty last week and are cooperating with federal prosecutors in building the case against him. One of them, Caroline Ellison, admitted to being involved in diverting the customer funds, telling a federal judge, “I knew that it was wrong.”

Yet in interviews across the island Mr. Bankman-Fried called home for just over a year, residents almost universally said that while the white-collar nature of his crimes was troublesome, they were hardly comparable to the gang violence that pervades some corners of the island... 

 So on the beach you're strolling. Real high rolling. Everything you have is yours and not stolen

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country

 Just warming up the fingers...

They don't teach that anymore, do they?  Thanks MOM!  She was my first teacher, and liked her job raising us, I think. Kids used to learn so much in the home and from loved ones that -- I believe -- just cannot be replicated in the daycares and early schooling.  I think in America, it's really showing now, how many children were raised with paid help, with no permanent investment going either way, in the payoff or in the daily inputting into present minds...

I really don't think you can "outsource" mothering most days of the week... I guess that's why so many of us choose not to have children.  If we can't raise them right, we're not contributing to the mass social problems that ill-equipped children bring to society (and their parents and grandparents too.)

Oh well, I guess we can always buy our way out of that too, eh America?  The money tree will never stop producing? And there will always be plenty for all comers...

(now that, I don't believe...  This tax system is going to catch up to America; nobody wants to pay full freight, and boy, are we carrying more of a load today, some of us...)

Roger Boisjoly

 You know what this extreme cold weather and lack of worker-input respect for real-world conditions has me thinking of these days, when I am sitting waiting for my car to warm up?

How many "accidents" are just waiting to happen when machinery is not maintained and the "elites in charge" are making poor decisions on their own, without proper understanding of the way things really work out here...

RIP Roger Boisjoly.  They don't make men like you much anymore, likely because we have softened the path for so many, and so few rise from "real world" conditions to begin with...

Pray people being paid to do their jobs today are letting others do theirs. Others with more practical knowledge too.  (and less of an interest in the profit-maximization end of things that maybe thinks it cheaper to shut others up who might valuably contribute to the overall mission...)

We best start listening to the Roger Boisjoly types in America today, if we are wise... Those who know things that you don't.  (there are people like that -- men and women -- don't you think/admit?) 

Hear them and make fixes to avoid the Challenger fate in other professions that logic and wiser minds saw coming?

ADDED:  There should be a professional ethics requirement for every profession, and everyone should be held to it... not rewarded for smashing it to pieces, even if it makes a company money in the short run...

Peace Be with You...

 

                 and with your Spirit...

"Been a Long Time, Been a Long Time..."

*Earthly angels:  Nikki Hearts and Calico Lane in Hotel (not the Authur Hailey one...) #TforT

Ask, and ye shall receive!

I asked again tonight for my blog to be reinstated... I was taken down, pre-election after a long October of posting. They granted my wish. They heard my plea. They put me back up... #Thankful.