LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS BY ERNESTO FALCON ~ JUNE 30, 2017 ~ EFF Source

What do they do when they can’t win the vote? Try to Stop a Vote.

Right now, politicians in Sacramento are holding up a bill that would restore your broadband privacy rights and directly reject Congress and the Trump Administration’s decision to side with Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon.

It is in fact the first bill ready to be enacted into California law that would be a direct response the latest string of efforts in Washington DC to curb consumer protections in broadband access. A.B. 375 (Chau) would ensure your broadband provider must secure your permission first before selling your personal information to third parties.

However, it has been stalled in the Senate Rules Committee – likely due to opposition from major cable and telephone companies. If they are successful at keeping the bill stalled until July 18th, then the bill is dead for the rest of this year.

They can’t win at the vote given the overwhelming public opposition to repealing our privacy rights in the first place, which is why this is their strategy.

Death by Procedure and Denying the Vote

In California, bills must make it past certain policy committees by specific deadlines, or they are dead for the year. But before a bill can be heard in any policy committee, it must be referred out by the Rules Committee in a fairly routine matter of deciding which committees should review and vote on the bill before presentation to the full Assembly and Senate.

Two weeks ago, AB375 became eligible to be referred out of the Senate Rules Committee. Assuming normal procedures, advocates expected to testify in support of the bill at a July 3rdhearing.  However, the legislation has been mysteriously absent from consideration on the Rules Committee agenda. Two weeks have passed, the Senate Rules Committee has met twice, yet A.B. 375 has not been placed on the agenda, debated, or referred out to any policy committee.

This raises significant questions.

Unless Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, who leads the Senate - and chairs the Rule Committee - decides to ignore the pleas of Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon and, instead, follows normal procedural rules and moves the bill forward so it can receive a vote, the telecom lobby will win in arguably the worst way possible - by simply denying your elected representatives from even voting at all.

The Momentum is With Us

California is the 20th state to engage in restoring our broadband privacy rights, but it could be the first state to officially make it law by this year. A vast majority of conservative, liberal, and independent voters opposed Congress repealing our broadband privacy rights and naturally they demanded action. Several | print | publications | in California have written positive reviews about AB 375. And the legislation itself has been thoroughly vetted and is ready for enactment.

We have until July 18th to push AB 375 to the finish line. Pick up the phone ASAP and make your voice heard!

Stefán Karl Stefánsson
as Robbie Rotten

Current Photo of Stefán Karl Stefánsson posted on imgur.com

LazyTown - We are Number One Music Video from sam rudolph

Robbie Rotten Actor's Wife Reveals His Cancer Is In The Very Final Stages

posted by Josh Lee, 23 June 2017, 10:06 @ We The UNICORNS Source

“His candle burns quickly” ~ Photographs and Video at Source

Beloved Lazy Town actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson -aka Robbie Rotten- is in the final stages of cancer, his wife has revealed in a heartfelt Facebook post.

Stefán became an internet fave after his Lazy Town alter ego became the latest go-to for shitposters worldwide. When the online community discovered he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2016, a GoFundMe was set up t0 provide much needed funds. Over £100,000 has been raised so far.

Sadly, Stefán’s cancer continued to worsen

On June 2, a representative for Stefan told us:

“After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, going through surgery & chemo treatments, and being out of work for up to a year, this week [Stefan] went to the doctor in hopes of a final check-up, but instead his doctors found two tumors that metastasized and will need to be surgically removed – setting the kid-loving clown back even further.”

Stefán has sadly run out of conventional treatment options

In an emotional Facebook post, Stefán’s wife explained that the actor’s condition was now past the point of conventional treatment, and that his “candle burns quickly”.

She wrote:

[The following has been translated from Icelandic]

Many have asked us about Stefán’s health, so I asked him to tell me about the state of affairs.

Stefán has been hospitalised for 14 days. On June 7, three liver tumours were removed. After the operation Stefan suffered an infection which lasted a week. and afterwards, he received an infection that lasted for a week in hospital. Stephen has bile-duct cancer (Cholangiocarcinoma), a rare and little-researched disease.

The disease is now advanced to stage four, and therefore, his life expectancy is unfortunately significantly reduced.

Medication is not in sight when the disease is so far gone. Experiments are being made with drugs and life-extending conventional and non-traditional therapies around the world. But the answers haven’t been found yet. Conventional chemotherapy also does not deliver results when this is the case.

Metastases of this disease can sometimes be removed by surgical procedures, such as the operation that Stephen went through, but it is unlikely that he will undergo more when they come back. Little can be predicted right now. We hope for the best.

It was unbearable to tell our children that their dad would not live to be an old man, and that the time we had together was scarce. Taking away the hope that their dad will ever recover. The trust of your children does not make you save, even when it seems unreal. It has been a relief to know that they have not been lied to. If someone thinks that children are not able to have meaningful conversations about death, life and existence, then the same goes wrong with many things.

A vigilous priest at the Children’s Hospital brought this hard encounter with me and the four children and did it beautifully and with profound professionalism. I could not have done it without him.

Our family and friends are all over the state of affairs and each one takes on these heavy facts that we’re faced with. It’s surprising that if you’re stuck in a scene in the midst of a catastrophe – the sun is shining right now, just as nothing has gotten to it – how can it be? Life is no problem.

I would like to thank Stefán, Nurses, Patients, and all 13-G staff for the publicity in recent days. Great people all together. I would also like to thank the unexpected friend that I acquired on a bench outside of the hospital for the confidential conversation, the guns of a coach who went to the rallies with Júli and Steina in the hall of the National Hospital and the nightly smile that smiled at me when I went home at night.

Although the chances and statistics are not in our favor, and Stefán’s candle burns quickly, we will not stay with it and be scared of fear. We know that time is precious as never before and we have promised to enjoy it as well as we can. Death is strange – life is nothing but magnificent!

We’re keeping Stefan’s family and millions of fans close to our hearts at this difficult time.

Russia warns US its fighter jets
are now potential target in Syria

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John Titor On Civil War

I remember 2036 very clearly. It is difficult to describe 2036 in detail without spending a great deal of time explaining why things are so different.

In 2036, I live in central Florida with my family and I'm currently stationed at an Army base in Tampa. A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people. The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centered on the family and then the community. I cannot imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents.

There is no large industrial complex creating masses of useless food and recreational items. Food and livestock is grown and sold locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiply and divide in their heads.

Life has changed so much over my lifetime that it's hard to pin down a "normal" day. When I was 13, I was a soldier. As a teenager, I helped my dad haul cargo. I went to college when I was 31 and I was recruited to "time travel" shortly after that. Again, I suppose an average day in 2036 is like an average day on the farm.

There is a civil war in the United States that starts in 2005. That conflict flares up and down for 10 years. In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the "other side" of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)...thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed. Russia is now our largest trading partner and the Capitol of the US was moved to Omaha Nebraska.

One of the biggest reasons why food production is localized is because the environment is affected with disease and radiation. We are making huge strides in getting it cleaned up. Water is produced on a community level and we do eat meat that we raise ourselves.

After the war, early new communities gathered around the current Universities. That's where the libraries were. I went to school at Fort UF, which is now called the University of Florida. Not too much is different except the military is large part of people's life and we spend a great deal of time in the fields and farms at the "University" or Fort.

The Constitution was changed after the war. We have 5 presidents that are voted in and out on different term periods. The vice president is the president of the senate and they are voted separately. ~ John Titor

John Titor Predictions from Geek Blast Radio

[Ed. Note: "Why do you post crap like this?" is frequently asked and the answer requires an example.

During Apollo 11's return from the moon astronaut Neil Armstrong said, "A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow" (source) and simply, the above example shows science fiction is able to become real.

Multus* discovered that posting science fiction stories and false flag information can prevent certain things from happening because powers that be prefer not to give any credibility, whatsoever, to "crap posters."

*Multus ~ Latin word for multiple & an alleged highly educated, secret, fraternal order. 

Members of Multus, also known as "Multies," work, on occasion, with "Singulars." 

Singulars are most common (87%) and usually educated in one field of study. Multies (3%) are educated in a variety of scientific and related fields of study.

It is alleged one has to have an "Above 33" secret clearance (no president of the United States has ever had) in order to know the true purpose of Multies and ... that they are peaceful, positive beings involved with preservation of humanity.

In order to understand a little more about Multus, ARPA, established during 1958, was renamed "DARPA" (D for Defense) in March 1972, then renamed "ARPA" in February 1993, and then renamed "DARPA" again in March 1996 because Multies refused to harm any living thing. They turned DARPA back into ARPA, for a while, in order to get some important classified work done.]

By Ari Melber and Noel Hartman and Liz Johnstone, NBC News Source, via Karl Cohen

Video and photographs located at Source

SCANDAL

Watergate prosecutors had evidence that operatives for then-President Richard Nixon planned an assault on anti-war demonstrators in 1972, including potentially physically attacking Vietnam whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, according to a never-before-published memo obtained by NBC News.

The document, an 18-page 1973 investigative memorandum from the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, sheds new light on how prosecutors were investigating attempts at domestic political violence by Nixon aides, an extremely serious charge.

NBC News is publishing the memo, and an accompanying memo about an interview prosecutors conducted with GOP operative Roger Stone, as part of special coverage for the 45th anniversary of the Watergate break-in.

READ: Prosecutors' Memo on "Investigation Into The Assault On Anti-War Demonstrators On May 3, 1972"

READ: Prosecutors' Memo on "Interview with Roger Stone, re: May 3rd Incident"

A plot to physically attack Ellsberg is notable because the former Pentagon official has long alleged that Nixon operatives did more than steal his medical files, the most well-known effort to discredit him.

In his memoirs, Ellsberg wrote that in May 1972, the White House had flown "Cuban-American CIA 'assets' from Miami to Washington to disrupt a rally that I and others were addressing on the steps of the Capitol," with orders "to incapacitate [me] totally."

Nixon officials denied that account, however, and there were never any indictments related to the accusation.

The memo, written on June 5, 1975, by Watergate special prosecutor Nick Akerman, provides some contemporaneous support for Ellsberg's allegation that he was targeted.

It states that "an extensive investigation" found evidence that Nixon operatives plotted an "assault on antiwar demonstrators" at a rally at the U.S. Capitol featuring Ellsberg and other anti-war "notables." The anti-war demonstration occurred near a viewing of recently deceased FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. An accompanying memo by Akerman summarizes his interview with Stone, who said he helped organize young Republicans to join the counter-demonstration but who had no apparent knowledge of the White House plot on Ellsberg.

The attack would be on "long-haired demonstrators, in particular Ellsberg," the prosecutors' memo states, with the objectives of impugning Ellsberg for protesting near to Hoover lying in state and "simply having Ellsberg beaten up."

Prosecutors concluded that White House counsel Charles Colson directed the operation, which Colson denied.

Prosecutors initially responded to newspaper reports that Bernard Barker, a Cuba-born Watergate burglar, and a group of nine Miami associates "had engaged antiwar demonstrators in a fight" and that Colson was behind it.

Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice related to stealing Ellsberg's medical files, but was never charged for conduct related to this plot. The memo addresses that distinction, noting that while prosecutors concluded Colson was involved, the evidence they had "would not be sufficient to indict Colson."

"There is still no clear way to link Colson to the assault which is muddled by his efforts to organize a lawful counterdemonstration," the memo concludes. "This melding of the counterdemonstration and the assault had been a problem throughout this investigation in charging anybody with a crime."

The memo also suggests that Nixon was briefed on aspects of the plot, because aides John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman said the story "might someday hurt the president" if links to Nixon operatives were revealed. Ehrlichman had discussed "bringing the Cubans up to rough-up the demonstrators," and Nixon responded, "Campaign activities — I got that."

The conversation, captured on the Watergate tapes, continues as the talk turns to how the incident might ultimately be handled by Congressional investigators and the Watergate prosecutors.

"Probably, [it] will get in some way logged into the grand jury business because of the money," Haldeman says.

While that possibility apparently concerned the White House, the document shows prosecutors never had quite enough evidence to build the plot into their case against Nixon and his operatives.

Brief History

The social psychologist, Erich Fromm first coined the term "malignant narcissism" in 1964, describing it as a "severe mental sickness" representing "the quintessence of evil". He characterized the condition as "the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity."

What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a disorder, characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others.

People with the disorder are often perceived as arrogant, callous, envious and tend to be exploitative in their interpersonal relationships.

They can be excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity.

Those with NPD generally lack emotional awareness and insight into their own condition, and fail to acknowledge that their behavior is at the root of their own problems as well as the problems they cause for others because, as a personality disorder, their thoughts, perceptions, and actions are generally consistent with their sense of self.

In cases of child sexual abuse that lead to narcissism, blaming the victim expands the trauma.

Are malignant narcissists cases of arrested development?

They are perpetually living in a mind set of a young child. The age when a child is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong but very willing to do wrong if they think they won't get caught. Like a child, they feel entitled to whatever they want. Like a child, they recreate reality to suit their fantasy about themselves and the world around them. Like a child, they want all attention focused on them. But, unlike a child, the narcissist is not subject to being molded and shaped by authority figures or reality. The narcissist is determined (read here, conscious choice) to remain a child whereas most children are driven by a desire to grow up. Children are childish and there is no crime in that. I'm not pathologizing childhood. I'm highlighting that malignant narcissists are pathological children.

They reserve to themselves the right to define reality to all in their domain.

What are Phobic Symptoms?

For example:

Feelings of uncontrollable anxiety when a narcissist is about to be exposed for __

Feelings that everything possible must be done to avoid __

Inability to function normally because of anxiety due to __

Having knowledge that fears are unreasonable or exaggerated, but feeling powerless to control them, which will sometimes lead to panic attacks.

What is Narcissistic Abuse?

Narcissistic abuse is one of the most pervasive forms of abuse. There really isn't much worse and this condition is increasingly spreading throughout our society.

The increasing use of illegal drugs, abuse and the general social breakdown occurring world wide is a major cause.

A person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) will emotionally damage their families. This damage can last more than a life time, it will also affect the next 3 or 4 generations.

Many children of NPD elect to not perpetuate the craziness another generation by not having children. NPD can also be passed down through the generations. Great grandma had NPD and one of the great grand children also is afflicted with NPD.

NPD's are very good actors and actresses. They can feign love or whatever they need to get what they want. They tend to attract empaths or people that really want to help them. These make wonderful victims, especially the type that can keep turning the cheek.

18 Ways To Spot A Narcissist

1). They’re likable — at least, at first glance. ~ 2). Not all narcissists are loud and proud. In fact, some are quiet and shy. ~ 3). They can often be found in leadership roles.

Not that that makes them good leaders, notes Jean Twenge, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychology at San Diego State University and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic with Campbell. But narcissists often find themselves in leadership positions because "people who are narcissistic want to be leaders. They don't necessarily make better leaders, but they want to do it, so they're more likely to end up in those positions."

4). They always manage to make the conversation about themselves. ~ 5). They’re also guilty of name-dropping. ~ 6). Not every story a narcissist tells is one of victory. But even in the stories of tragedy or failure, there’s an air of entitlement and victimization. ~ 7). They like nice things. ~ 8). Appearance is everything to them. ~ 9). On Facebook, they have lots of friends — and not a single bad picture. ~ 10). They are strongly averse to criticism. ~ 11). Excuses are a narcissist’s best friend. ~ 12). They leave a trail of wreckage behind them. ~ 13). And in that vein, they may be more likely to cheat. ~ 14). Everything is personal. ~ 15). A narcissistic person probably has no idea he or she is a narcissist. ~ 16). You find yourself resorting to flattery just to maintain the peace with a narcissist. ~ 17). Narcissists are not low in self-esteem. ~ 18). Men are more likely to be narcissists than women.

Are you a target of narcissistic abuse?

If you have been the target of a severe narcissist, severing ties may be necessary. Others may never understand why you had to make this choice. Without exposure, a capacity for insight, concern and curiosity, they cannot perceive the destructiveness. It may make you feel alone, but so be it. Do what you have to do.

Once you are removed and safe, thoughts about what happened—why, how, makes no sense, they do not care about the damage they caused, etc,—may haunt you. You may feel damaged or tainted because you are now saddled with the memories and feel you cannot get them out of your head.

You can...

Heal Yourself, Ruthie Foster, film: Road To Austin from Gary Fortin

Here's how: Develop the ability to change your thoughts or your relationship to your thoughts. There are many options such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

It can be done.

Regarding the incredibly seductive pull of a very skilled narcissist, be wise.

When the bombs of life hit us, our world view is shattered. Our assumption of a fair world run by a benevolent deity is brought into direct conflict with the hell of our pain. Experiencing extreme pain affects how we view ourselves. The picture of the beautiful, happy loving world we used to live in, involved our own part of that picture. We all carry pictures of ourselves in our heads. Most of us have the belief that we are capable to wake up in the morning, shower, get ourselves dressed and proceed throughout our day making our living. The trauma of victimization changes all this. We seriously question ourselves after a narcissist victimizes us. Are we weak? Are we needy? How did we not see them for who they were? Weren't we intelligent? How did we not pick up on the lies? Are we out of control? It makes no sense to us when we face unwarranted, irrational and undeserved mental /emotional torture by a narcissist.

The victimization of us was neither expected nor intended to be our choice. We did not want to be lied to, cheated, cheated on, stolen from, lied about, sold down the river and thrown away. We did NOT see this coming. We perceive ourselves as helpless and powerless. Our self perceptions change. Will we now always be victimized in relationships? Will we be singled out again? These new self perceptions can cause us to act out again, from this perception; becoming another victim to a narcissist.

As you can see, the skillful narcissist is a person with some pretty amazing traits. In my opinion, they can be formidable. They can be impressive in power, strength, intelligence, size, and difficulty. If you find one opposing you, they can be astounding enemies. They are not omnipotent, though they might think so. They do have limitations. Their ego is their own undoing. Many times, when they discover that you are on to them, they disappear. They do this if they perceive that you can blow their cover and expose them as a sham. For an extreme narcissist, being fully exposed to the world is the greatest pain in their lives. It is also the best medicine to their disease because it will force them to look inside and deal with their pain and wounds. If and when that happens, they will become like the rest of us, realizing that we do need others to help and love us. They will see how they need to love from a genuine heart that does not seek to use people. A former and healed narcissist can turn all his powerful assets, which he used to advance himself, to making a powerful contribution in the lives of others and being realistically liked. In the meantime, be careful and avoid being duped and drawn by the amazing magnetism of this kind of person.

Conclusion

If you have been targeted by a Malignant Narcissist for serious abuse, be aware that the abuse includes character assassination ~ the annihilation of who you are as a person.

Just as through murder a careful criminal leaves no witnesses, a malignant narcissist is careful to abuse on the sly and destroy the victim's credibility in advance in order to "leave no witnesses."

Character assassination is the premeditated murder of the target's image, their good name, their reputation, and ultimately their life.

Malignant Narcissism, Rush from Ed

1975 United State Cafe Recordings

Complete MP3 Music Sets ~ Sound & Recording by C. Spangler
More Cafe recordings & MP3 music located on Podcast page

Tuesday Night Class ~ July 29, 1975 with Keith Lampe

Robin Kilgore ~ August 02, 1975 ~ page

Jumpin' Jupiter ~ August 09, 1975 ~ page

Gabriel Gladstar ~ August 12, 1975 ~ page

Happy Valley String Band ~ August 13, 1975 ~ page

Honey Creek ~ August 26, 1975~ page

Others call it knowing the difference between right and wrong

Our moral bottom line has fallen so low. ~ Tian You

Our political system doesn’t regulate the things it should and it manages things it shouldn’t. We’ve become individuals, alienated and doing whatever we can to get ahead. There is no space left to care for others. ~ Zhang Wen

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Disney Princess Party ~ The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet from Yuki Katayama

From Auckland ~ Located at Warkworth Museum ~ Reddit Source

Dreamstreets 26 with Even Steven

Dreamstreets 26 returns to WVUD 91.3 fm / www.WVUD.org every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm (EDT) ~ 11am (PDT). This series mingles the work by current local poets and authors with the history of Delaware’s literature. ~ Steve

Dreamstreets 26: Tuesdays ~ 2 PM EDT ~ 11 AM PDT
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:

Keep the Net Neutral from McKenna Fryman

Updated 201706.06

Net neutrality: Amazon among top
internet firms planning day of action

Exclusive: Etsy, Kickstarter and other leading companies to fight FCC plans to neuter 2015 rules in July protest backed by ACLU, Greenpeace and more

Dominic Rushe in New York The Guardian ~ June 6, 2017 ~ Yahoo Article Source

Some of the world’s largest internet companies are planning a day of action in defense of open internet rules now under attack by the Trump administration.

Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Etsy and Vimeo all intend to hold a day of protest on 12 July in opposition to plans by Donald Trump’s newly appointed telecoms regulator to neuter tough 2015 rules meant to protect “net neutrality” - the concept that all traffic should be equal online.

Ajit Pai, new head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), pledged last year to take a “weed whacker” to rules that regulate the internet like any other utility like water or electricity, arguing they were too onerous on cable companies and stifled innovation.

The potential rollback of the regulations has already sparked huge online protest and more organisations and companies are likely to join the day of action in the coming days.

Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, said: “The internet has given more people a voice than ever before, and we’re not going to let the FCC take that power away from us. Massive online mobilization got us the strong net neutrality protections that we have now, and we intend to fight tooth and nail to defend them.”

Alongside Amazon and others, the day of action is being backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Library Association, Center for Media Justice, Demand Progress, Greenpeace, MoveOn and many others.

Michael Cheah, general counsel of Vimeo, said: “Net neutrality made it possible for Vimeo, along with countless other startups, to innovate and thrive. The FCC’s proposed rollback of the 2015 open internet rules threatens to impede that innovation and allow a handful of incumbent ISPs to determine winners and losers.”

Global tech companies including Google, Netflix and Twitter joined a similar day of protest in 2014 helped push the FCC to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, a move that banned internet service providers from creating fast or slow lanes for services – a situation that critics argue would allow them to pick winners and losers online.

Those rules have been challenged repeatedly since they were brought in but have failed to be overturned in court. However, with the FCC under Republican control, cable companies have made a renewed effort to overturn the rules, arguing they stifle innovation and investment. According to the cable company-supporting Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, broadband investment has gone down roughly 2-3% since the introduction of the Open Internet Order.

The FCC’s last discussion of open internet rules attracted more than 4m comments, a record that has already been surpassed this time with more than five million comments so far. The FCC’s website crashed after the comedian John Oliver, a consistent supporter of net neutrality, lambasted Pai’s latest comments in May. Oliver set up a site directing people to comment on the FCC proposal.

Mark Stanley, communications director of Demand Progress, said: “The FCC’s plan to dismantle net neutrality will unfairly pad the bottom lines of Comcast and the rest of Big Cable, while undermining the public’s ability to freely communicate, organize, and innovate. Every few years, a threat so severe confronts the open internet that people, organizations, and companies from across the political spectrum – including some of the largest online platforms – must band together in common cause to fight back. The FCC’s ongoing effort to roll back net neutrality protections represents just such a threat – and on the July 12th day of action, we’ll once again use the transformative power of the internet to defend the internet itself.”

Net neutrality activists have already lost,
according to these execs

The Switch By Brian Fung June 1 ~ The Washington Post Source

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to deregulate the telecom and cable industry by rolling back the agency's net neutrality rules, some people on both sides of the issue already say the battle is pretty much moot.

On Wednesday, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings signaled he thinks the current fight is unwinnable.

"I think Trump's FCC is going to unwind the rules, no matter what anybody says," Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings said at Re/code's annual Code Conference. "That's going to happen, and then we get to see what's going to come out of that."

If you're just catching up on this issue, net neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated the same by your Internet provider — whether it's email, online games or streaming music. To prevent ISPs from arbitrarily manipulating what you can see and do online, or from hurting startups and small businesses, the government instituted rules to enshrine that idea. Those rules are now likely to be repealed under the FCC's Republican leadership, which has argued that the regulation unnecessarily stifles Internet providers like Verizon and Comcast. (Internet providers have said they support the principles of net neutrality, even if they disagree with the FCC's implemented policy.)

Netflix was among the most outspoken proponents of the FCC's rules in the run-up to their implementation. The company has been more muted this time around, Hastings said, because Netflix has grown so large that it would likely be unaffected if ISPs were to violate the net neutrality principle. The more vulnerable companies, he added, are smaller ones — "the Netflix of 10 years ago," as he put it.

Hastings' remarks about net neutrality's future reflect the political reality at the FCC: Republicans currently outnumber Democrats on the commission by 2-1, meaning the GOP has enough votes to push through a repeal over liberal objections. (Some analysts point to the outside chance that the FCC's lone Democrat, Mignon Clyburn, could step down early and deny the FCC a voting quorum, but others say the Republican majority can legally resort to obscure procedural tactics to overcome that move.)

Beyond the fact that Republicans hold the upper hand politically, some who oppose the net neutrality rules say the FCC's regulations don't even accomplish what they were supposed to do — and that therefore, they may as well be overturned without much fuss.

This view is shaped by the perspective of two federal judges, who clarified in a recent ruling that the current rules do not apply to certain types of Internet providers. Which providers can take advantage of that loophole? Those that, according to the opinion, openly say they are offering a filtered view of the Internet.

In a blog post Wednesday, Hank Hultquist, a vice president at AT&T, said he was bowled over by the ramifications of that opinion.

"Wow. ISPs are not only free to engage in content-based blocking, they can even create the long-dreaded fast and slow lanes so long as they make their intentions sufficiently clear to customers," Hultquist wrote. The upshot, he continued, is that the very regulations that supporters thought would protect the Internet actually don't do much to protect it at all.

Hultquist's implication is that if the FCC's strong net neutrality rules are really weak, narrow rules, then there's no reason supporters should want to keep them around — and that it makes rather pointless the whole fight over Title II of the Communications Act.

Other supporters of the rules say Hultquist has it all wrong: You can only take advantage of the loophole if you're offering Internet access to a slice of the population that isn't the general public. One example might be if you run an ISP that's marketed toward religious minorities. That's a description that clearly doesn't fit how AT&T does business today, said Gene Kimmelman, president of the consumer group Public Knowledge.

What's more, he added, the fact that AT&T is realizing that it can block and throttle Internet content under the current rules so long as it changes how it runs its business shows that opponents of the rules have no grounds to claim that the regulation is overly restrictive.

"What you're effectively saying is, [the rules are] quite flexible," said Kimmelman. "That's what we've been saying all along. You can offer a lot of differentiated services. It really makes the stronger argument that Title II should be no problem for anybody."

A Note from twerking_nine2five

I feel like a key problem with rallying for net neutrality is the sheer amount of people that don't understand what it is or how it works. 

It also doesn't help that the media doesn't care too much about presenting it (as television corporations are typically against it). 

I think net neutrality, or rather the repeal of net neutrality needs rebranding. 

In order for people to care, they need to realize what repealing net neutrality actually does. If we start referring to those who do not support net neutrality as people that are anti-Netflix L2IP [Level II Internet Profiteers], or anti-YouTube, and can make one of those the colloquial term, the general populace may start to care. 

It needs to be taken a step further though, the American people need to realize that taking away net neutrality is in fact a method of limiting free speech. It could be called "anti-Netflix L2IP [Level II Internet Profiteers]" legislation or "pay-per-speak" legislation. 

People need to be aware that this is not a matter of politics. Whether they identify as a democrat, republican, or any number of the minority parties, this is something that can be used to limit free speech.

Steps to help:

1). Learn the analogy of roads to explain net neutrality

2). Explain the corporate motivation for ending net neutrality

3). Refer to it as "anti-Netflix L2IP [Level II Internet Profiteers]" or "pay-per-speak" legislation

4). Explain that you believe Internet access is the same as any utility, and not a luxury service

Organization and awareness are the only way we can say net neutrality. If we can form a movement that defines net neutrality and promotes it, we may just be able to save it once more.

A Large Cup of Tears?

SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, ACTA, TPP, ITU, CISPA again, TAFTA

We won them all. In 2015 Net Neutrality, for free access to our Internets. The FCC just signaled the death knell for that hard-won fight. We need to have a serious conversation and fight this, and time is short. Let's have that conversation.

Via /u/vriska1:

https://www.eff.org/

https://www.aclu.org/

https://www.freepress.net/

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/

https://www.publicknowledge.org/

https://demandprogress.org/

You can set them as your charity on https://smile.amazon.com/

Write your House Representative and Senators

Find Your Representative

Contact your Senator

FCC:  https://www.fcc.gov/about/contact

Add a comment to the repeal here

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings

An easier URL you can use thanks to John Oliver ~ www.gofccyourself.com

Major tech companies for Net Neutrality (open in incognito mode to skip wall),

and Senate Democrats for Net Neutrality.

Use this to help contact Congress & Senate:

https://resistbot.io/ ~~ https://democracy.io/#!/

Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution

Comcast is trying to censor our pro-net neutrality website that calls for an investigation into fake FCC comments potentially funded by the cable lobby ~ Source

Fight for the Future has received a cease and desist order from Comcast’s lawyers, claiming that Comcastroturf.com - a pro-net neutrality site encouraging Internet users to investigate an astroturfing campaign possibly funded by the cable lobby - violates Comcast’s "valuable intellectual property." The letter threatens legal action if the domain is not transferred to Comcast’s control.

The notice is ironic, in that it’s a perfect example of why we need Title II based net neutrality protections that ban ISPs from blocking or throttling content. 

If the FCC’s current proposal is enacted, there would be nothing preventing Comcast from simply censoring this site -- or other sites critical of their corporate policies -- without even bothering with lawyers.

The legal notice can be viewed here. It claims that Comcastroturf.com violates the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and infringes on Comcast’s trademarks. Of course, these claims are legally baseless, since the site is clearly a form of First Amendment protected political speech and makes no attempt to impersonate Comcast. (See the case "Bosley Medical Institute vs. Kremer" which held that a site critical of a company’s practices could not be considered trademark infringement, or the case Taubman vs. Webfeats, which decided that *sucks.com domain names—in this case taubmansucks.com—were free speech)

Comcastroturf.com criticizes the cable lobby and encourages Internet users to search the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)’s docket to check if a fake comment was submitted using their name and address to attack Title II based net neutrality protections. It has been widely reported that more than 450,000 of these comments have been submitted to the FCC -- and as a result of the site at Comcastroturf.com, Fight for the Future has heard from dozens of people who say that anti-net neutrality comments were submitted using their personal information without their permission. We have connected individuals with Attorneys Generals and have called for the FCC act immediately to investigate this potential fraud.

Companies like Comcast have a long history of funding shady astroturfing operations like the one we are trying to expose with Comcastroturf.com, and also a long history of engaging in censorship. This is exactly why we need net neutrality rules, and why we can’t trust companies like Comcast to just "behave" when they have abused their power time and time again.

Fight for the Future has no intention of taking down Comcastroturf.com, and we would be happy to discuss the matter with Comcast in court.

Updated: 201705.30

Eight members of Congress that voted to kill broadband privacy are now leading the charge to kill Net Neutrality as well

submitted by corneliuscardoo Reddit.com Article Source

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is advancing a plan to kill net neutrality and let ISPs like Comcast and Verizon slow down or censor websites and apps. His plan would make the Internet slower and more expensive, and it would make censorship for profit the norm. 

We can stop this like we stopped SOPA, TPP, and ACTA. We just need to make it clear that Pai’s plan is toxic so that no one in Washington wants anything to do with it. 

Here’s what we can do. There are 8 members of Congress currently egging the FCC on and helping Pai gut net neutrality. They recently put their names on a statement of support or expressed their support in a document of anti-net neutrality talking points to show that Pai has some congressional backing. 

They’re hoping we don’t notice and that they won’t face a backlash, so we need to call out these members of Congress now to make sure other members of Congress stay away. That way we can starve Pai of the congressional backing he needs to push through his plan.

Here are the 8 members of Congress that are publicly supporting Pai’s attack on net neutrality:

• Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) (Twitter: @RepGregWalden; phone: 202-225-6730)
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) (Twitter: @MarshaBlackburn; phone: 202-225-2811)
• Sen. John Thune (R-SD) (Twitter: @johnthune; phone: 202-224-2321)
• Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) (Twitter: @RogerWicker; phone: 202-224-6253)
• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (Twitter: @SpeakerRyan; phone: 202-225-3031)
• Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) (Twitter: @CathyMcMorris; phone: 202-225-2006)
• Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) (Twitter: @RepTomGraves; phone: 202-225-5211)
• Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) (Twitter: @BobLatta; phone: 202-225-6405)

All of these representatives and senators voted for the recent broadband privacy repeal bill as well. (Note: Paul Ryan did not formally vote on the broadband privacy bill because, by custom, the Speaker of the House does not vote on legislation unless their vote would be decisive. But, as Speaker, Ryan was responsible for bringing the bill to the floor to be voted on.)

Call their offices, tweet at them, post on their Facebook walls. Tell them you are appalled by their support for Ajit Pai’s plan to kill net neutrality and that you will do everything in your power to hold them accountable for destroying the Internet.

We can’t let these members of Congress get away with supporting Pai’s plan, or else other members of Congress will think it’s safe to support it as well. We know the cable lobbyists are trying their best to get everyone in Congress to support Pai’s plan. It’s up to us to stand up and make them think twice before they mess with the Internet.

EDIT: u/pperca rightly points out that another 8 senators have co-sponsored a bill that would repeal net neutrality. While their bill isn’t an explicit endorsement of Pai’s plan at the FCC, it’s basically a thinly veiled way of supporting Pai, so they deserve to be called out too. 

• Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) (Twitter: @SenMikeLee; phone: 202-224-5444)
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (Twitter: @JohnCornyn; phone: 202-224-2934)
• Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) (Twitter: @TomCottonAR; phone: 202-224-2353)
• Ted Cruz (R-TX) (Twitter: @SenTedCruz; phone: 202-224-5922)
• Ron Johnson (R-WI) (Twitter: @SenRonJohnson; phone: 202-224-5323)
• Rand Paul (R-KY) (Twitter: @RandPaul; phone: 202-224-4343)
• Thom Tillis (R-NC) (Twitter: @SenThomTillis; phone: 202-224-6342)
• Ben Sasse (R-NE) (Twitter: @SenSasse; phone: 202-224-4224)
• James Inhofe (R-OK) (Twitter: @JimInhofe; phone: 202-224-4721)

EDIT 2: If you want to submit a comment to the FCC in support of net neutrality, and contact your lawmakers at the same time, you can use this site: https://www.battleforthenet.com/ [Click to Continue reading?]

Updated: 201705.26

If Net Neutrality Dies, Comcast Can Just Block A Protest Site Instead Of Sending A Bogus Cease-And-Desist

from the comcastic dept

Trademark by Mike Masnick Tue, May 23rd 2017 3:00pm

techdirt source: Permalink ~ techdirt source: Short link

It appears that a vendor working for Comcast sent a totally bullshit cease-and-desist letter regarding a pro-net neutrality site: Comcastroturf.com, created by our friends over at Fight for the Future. The Comcastroturf website was set up as a tool to see if someone filed bogus FCC comments in your name. As you probably recall, there is a bot that has been flooding the FCC comment site with bogus anti-net neutrality comments, filed in alphabetical order. Reporters contacted some of the individuals whose names appear on these comments, and they had no idea what it was about. People are still trying to track down who is actually responsible for the bogus comments, but Fight for the Future set up this neat site to let you check if your name was used by whoever is behind it.

And, of course, the name "Comcastroturf" is pretty damn clever, given the topic. Kudos to Fight for the Future for coming up with that one. It is, of course, totally legal to use the domain name of a company that you're protesting in your own domain. There are numerous cases on this issue, normally discussed as the so-called "Sucks Sites." There's clearly no legal issue with Comcastroturf, and any reasonably informed human being would know that. Unfortunately, it would appear that Comcast hired a company that employs some non-reasonably informed humans.

The cease-and-desist letter was sent by a company called "Looking Glass Cyber Solutions" (no, really), which used to be called "Cyveillance" (only marginally less bad). We've written about Cyveillance twice before -- and both times they were about totally bogus takedown requests from Cyveillance that caused serious problems. The most recent was the time that Cyveillance, working for Qualcomm, filed a bogus DMCA notice that took down Qualcomm's own Github repository. Nice move. The earlier story, however was in 2013, and involved Cyveillance -- again representing Comcast -- sending a threatening takedown demand to some more of our friends over at TorrentFreak, claiming (ridiculously) that public court filings were Comcast's copyright-covered material, and threatening serious legal consequences if it wasn't taken down. Eventually, Comcast stepped in and admitted the cease-and-desist was "sent in error." You'd think that maybe this would have caused Comcast to think twice about using Cyveillance for such things. But, nope.

The rebranded Looking Glass Cyber Solutions has told Fight for the Future that "Comcastroturf" violates Comcast's "valuable intellectual property rights" and that failure to take down the site may lead to further legal action around cybersquatting and trademark violations. (Update: Turns out it wasn't a "rebranding" but Looking Glass bought Cyveillance...).

Of course, there's no way that Comcast would actually move forward with any legal action here. In fact, I'm pretty sure it already regrets the fact that the numbskulls at this vendor they hired to police their brand online just caused (yet another) massive headache for their brand online. Maybe, this time, Comcast will finally let Cyveillance/Looking Glass Cyber go, and find partners who don't fuck up so badly. Meanwhile, the fact that Looking Glass Cyber can't even figure out that Comcastroturf is a perfectly legal protest site makes the company's website -- which is chock full of idiotic buzzwords about "threat mitigation" and "threat intelligence" -- look that much more ridiculous. The only "threat" here is Looking Glass/Cyveillance and their silly cluelessness sending out censorious threats based on what appears to be little actual research.

Of course, without true net neutrality, if Comcast really wanted to silence Comcastroturf, it would just block everyone from accessing the site...

[Document image located at site] ~ Filed Under:
cease and desist, comcastroturf, cybersquatting, net neutrality, takedown

Companies:
comcast, cyveillance, fight for the future, looking glass cyber solutions

by John Myers, Los Angeles Times Source, June 1, 2017, , 3:59 P.M., Sacramento, CA

Lawmakers in the state Assembly approved an effort on Thursday that could end with California voters scrapping the biannual tradition of moving their clocks ahead or behind by an hour.

Assembly Bill 807 is the second effort in as many years by the Legislature to revisit California's use of Daylight Saving Time. The state's voters first approved its use through a 1949 ballot measure. And because of that history, the issue must go back to voters if changes are to be made.

The bill received almost no discussion in Thursday's 48-6 vote in the Assembly. It now heads to the state Senate, where a similar effort died last year.

The proposal would, if placed on next year's statewide ballot, seek to keep California on a single measurement of time all year — whether it be Pacific standard time or what's now only a seasonal adjustment ahead by an hour. The bill by Assemblyman Kansen Chu (D-San Jose) would ask voters to transfer a final decision to the Legislature.

Even then, no changes could be made without federal approval — which would mean the bill could end up changing nothing about timekeeping in California.

Daylight Saving Time was first applied in a uniform fashion across the U.S. in 1966. States can exempt themselves from the law — Arizona and Hawaii have done so — but cannot impose the seasonal change year-round.

The twenty-two Judas senators who took money from Big Oil that want to destroy you and your children's future are:

James Inhofe, Oklahoma

Oil & gas: $465,950

Coal: $63,600

Total: $529,550

John Barrasso, Wyoming

Oil & gas: $458,466

Coal: $127,356

Total: $585,822

Mitch McConnell, Kentucky

Oil & gas: $1,180,384

Coal: $361,700

Total: $1,542,084 

John Cornyn, Texas

Oil & gas: $1,101,456

Coal: $33,050

Total: $1,134,506

Roy Blunt, Missouri

Oil & gas: $353,864

Coal: $96,000

Total: $449,864

Roger Wicker, Mississippi

Oil & gas: $198,816

Coal: $25,376

Total: $224,192

Michael Enzi, Wyoming

Oil & gas: $211,083

Coal: $63,300

Total: $274,383

Mike Crapo, Idaho

Oil & gas: $110,250

Coal: $26,756

Total: $137,006

Jim Risch, Idaho

Oil & gas: $123,850

Coal: $25,680

Total: $149,530

Thad Cochran, Mississippi

Oil & gas: $276,905

Coal: $15,000

Total: $291,905

Mike Rounds, South Dakota

Oil & gas: $201,900

Coal: none

Total: $201,900

Rand Paul, Kentucky

Oil & gas: $170,215

Coal: $82,571

Total: $252,786

John Boozman, Arkansas

Oil & gas: $147,930

Coal: $2,000

Total: $149,930

Richard Shelby, Alabama

Oil & gas: $60,150

Coal: $2,500

Total: $62,650

Luther Strange, Alabama

(Appointed in 2017, running in 2017 special election)

Total: NA

Orrin Hatch, Utah

Oil & gas: $446,250

Coal: $25,000

Total: $471,250

Mike Lee, Utah 

Oil & gas: $231,520

Coal: $21,895

Total: $253,415

Ted Cruz, Texas 

Oil & gas: $2,465,910

Coal: $103,900

Total: $2,569,810

David Perdue, Georgia

Oil & gas: $184,250

Coal: $0

Total: $184,250

Thom Tillis, North Carolina

Oil & gas: $263,400

Coal: $0

Total: $263,400

Tim Scott, South Carolina

Oil & gas: $490,076

Coal: $58,200

Total: $548,276

Pat Roberts, Kansas

Oil & gas: $388,950

Coal: $28,825

Total: $417,775

Sum total for all 22 Republican signatories: $10,694,284 ~ The Guardian Source

Humans, Our Next Fossil Fuel

by Luke Smillie ~ Senior Lecturer in Personality Psychology, University of Melbourne and Anna Antinori ~ PhD candidate, University of Melbourne
@ The Conversation ++ Source ~ May 28, 2017 4.04pm EDT

What is it about a creative work such as a painting or piece of music that elicits our awe and admiration? Is it the thrill of being shown something new, something different, something the artist saw that we did not? 

As Pablo Picasso put it:

Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.

The idea that some people see more possibilities than others is central to the concept of creativity. 

Psychologists often measure creativity using divergent thinking tasks. These require you to generate as many uses as possible for mundane objects, such as a brick. People who can see numerous and diverse uses for a brick (say, a coffin for a Barbie doll funeral diorama) are rated as more creative than people who can only think of a few common uses (say, for building a wall). 

The aspect of our personality that appears to drive our creativity is called openness to experience, or openness. Among the five major personality traits, it is openness that best predicts performance on divergent thinking tasks. Openness also predicts real-world creative achievements, as well as engagement in everyday creative pursuits. 

As Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire explain in their book Wired to Create, the creativity of open people stems from a “drive for cognitive exploration of one’s inner and outer worlds”. 

This curiosity to examine things from all angles may lead people high in openness to see more than the average person, or as another research team put it, to discover “complex possibilities laying dormant in so-called ‘familiar’ environments”. 

Creative vision

In our research, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, we found that open people don’t just bring a different perspective to things, they genuinely see things differently to the average individual. 

We wanted to test whether openness is linked to a phenomenon in visual perception called binocular rivalry. This occurs when two different images are presented to each eye simultaneously, such as a red patch to the right eye and a green patch to the left eye. 

For the observer, the images seem to flip intermittently from one to the other. At one moment only the green patch is perceived, and at the next moment only the red patch – each stimulus appearing to rival the other (see illustration below).

Binocular rivalry task. Author provided

Intriguingly, participants in binocular rivalry studies occasionally see a fused or scrambled combination of both images (see middle frame, above). These moments of “rivalry suppression”, when both images become consciously accessible at once, seem almost like a “creative” solution to the problem presented by the two incompatible stimuli.

Across three experiments, we found that open people saw the fused or scrambled images for longer periods than the average person. Furthermore, they reported seeing this for even longer when experiencing a positive mood state similar to those that are known to boost creativity. 

Our findings suggest that the creative tendencies of open people extend all the way down to basic visual perception. Open people may have fundamentally different visual experiences to the average person.

Seeing things that others miss

Another well-known perceptual phenomenon is called inattentional blindness. People experience this when they are so focused on one thing that they completely fail to see something else right before their eyes. 

In a famous illustration of this perceptual glitch, participants were asked to watch a short video of people tossing a basketball to one another, and to track the total number of passes between the players wearing white.

Try this out yourself, before reading further!
[Count the basketball passes between players in white.]

During the video, a person in a gorilla costume wanders into centre stage, indulges in a little chest-beating, and then schleps off again. Did you see it? If not, you are not alone. Roughly half of the 192 participants in the original study completely failed to see the costumed figure.

But why did some people experience inattentional blindness in this study when others didn’t? The answer to this question came in a recent follow-up study showing that your susceptibility to inattentional blindness depends on your personality: open people are more likely to see the gorilla in the video clip. 

Once again, it seems that more visual information breaks through into conscious perception for people high in openness — they see the things that others screen out.

Opening our minds: is more better?

It might seem as if open people have been dealt a better hand than the rest of us. But can people with uncreative personalities broaden their limited vistas, and would this be a good thing?

There is mounting evidence that personality is malleable, and increases in openness have been observed in cognitive training interventions and studies of the effects of psilocybin (the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms).

Openness also increases for students who choose to study overseas, confirming the idea that travel broadens the mind. 

But there is also a dark side to the “permeability of consciousness” that characterises open people. Openness has been linked to aspects of mental illness, such as proneness to hallucination.

So despite its appeal, there may be a slippery slope between seeing more and seeing things that are not there.

So, from different personalities emerge different experiences, but we should always remember that one person’s view is not necessarily better than another’s.

Psychology ~ Creativity ~ Vision ~ Openness ~ Personality

Carlin Step, DJ Steve Porter & Eli Wilkie from Roland Kardeby

The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar

One Day, Matisyahu from 100%

Unsung Hero from Rattakarn Srithavatchai "Garn"

Links ~ Flying Snail Archive

Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation-SF Newsletter

ASIFA-SF Newsletter ~ June 2017

Click for ASIFA-SF June 2017 Newsletter PDF format

Belote's Studio 354 ~ Artist's Gallery & Bay Area Showcase, Oakland, CA

California Art from the collection of Edan Hughes ~ February thru June 2017

Mike Wilhelm ~ Charlatans, Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel, and more

&Hired Guns from ed chatham

Great MP3 Podcasts via Mike Wilhelm

Hear The People:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/HearThePeople.mp3

Sympathy For The Devil:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/SympathyForTheDevil.mp3

When You Got A Good Friend:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/WhenYouGotAGoodFriend.mp3

Mike Wilhelm & Sprung [C. Spangler]

Notes from ~@~

On the Bus, Carolyn Mountain Girl Garcia from vimeo

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Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. ~ Tom Smothers

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Cree Prophecy

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

Only after the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.

Boptime with Even Steven + Legends of Wilmington Jazz

On Saturday’s Boptime we head back to this day in 1951 at 6am (EDT) with the original cast of the Broadway musical Seventeen, then complete the hour with Machito’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite. At 7am (EDT) we continue with music from this day in 1951, the war news from Korea, the #1 tunes on the Pop, R&B and Country charts, what was playing locally at the movies and other trivia. At 8am (EDT) it’s the Morrie Sims Show, then the Delaware Rock & Roll Hall of Fame where we’ll revisit some choice rockabilly from Delaware in the late 1950s and early 60s. At 9am (EDT) on the Club Baby Grand we begin with a couple pieces suited for the season. After that some Clifford Brown related music, and round things out with music from Gerald Chavis and the Tony Smith Quintet with a rare Boysie Lowery composition. If time permits, we may even be able to squeeze in something from Lem Winchester. ~ Steve

We’ve got some special programming on Saturday’s Boptime. At 6am (EDT) we begin with James P. Johnson’s Harlem Symphony. In the second half of the hour you’ll hear the My World and Uncle Richard’s Neighborhood segments regarding a tragic incident that occurred at Prices Corner in June 1903. At 7am (EDT) we’ll go back to this day in 1954 with our usual treatment of many of the tunes from this day in that year, along with the movies playing in area theaters and drive-ins and some other events. At 8am (EDT) George [Stewart] from Crazy College [Sunday at 6pm (EDT)] takes over on Boptime with a special about the formation of ‘underground’ radio in the late 1960s & early 70s. ~ Steve

On Saturday’s Boptime we visit this day in 1952, beginning at 6am (EDT) with the Broadway musical Guys & Dolls, filling out the hour with musical selections from Stan Kenton and Teddy Charles. At 7am (EDT) we continue with music from this day in 1952 with a mix of pop and R&B tunes and the same for the 8am (EDT) hour with the #1 tunes for this day n 1952 from the pop, R&B, and country charts, along with the news of the day including news from the Korean War, what was playing at the movies and other current events. At 9am (EDT) we bop up to this day in 1953 with the same treatment that we gave for the previous year. ~ Steve

On Saturday’s Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) with a couple of Duke Ellington Suites. First is the New Orleans Suite, then the UWIS Suite. At 7am (EDT) we present the second part of The Secret City of Jazz. We meet on Clifford’s Corner at 8am (EDT) with co-hosts Kitty Mayo and Larry Williams, and for the remainder of the program we play those choice jazz and R&B sides, many of them rare, while chatting about the music and those who make it. ~ Steve

On Saturday’s Boptime we spend the first two hours with this day in 1956 beginning at 6am (EDT) with the Broadway musical Damn Yankees and finish out the hour with music from George Russell. During the 7am (EDT) hour we’ll begin with some crossover Broadway music along with other pop tunes, the #1 pop, R&B and country hits, what was playing at local movie theaters and drive-ins, plus some current events from this time in 1956. At 8am (EDT) the Morrie Sims Show returns with Wilmington’s preeminent jazz raconteur followed by the Delaware Rock & Roll Hall of Fame where we’ll play some mid 60s tunes from the Richie, Chavis and Candi labels. At 9am (EDT) on the Club Baby Grand we’ll play some tunes written by Wilmington Jazz musicians, Deannie Jenkins, Gerald Price and Len Foster, and learn who Keter Betts was. ~ Steve

Boptime: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:

by Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri
@ The Intercept ++ Source ~ May 27 2017, 5:04 a.m.

A SHADOWY INTERNATIONAL mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project.

Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters. One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement “generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “While we can expect to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora … aggressive intelligence preparation of the battlefield and active coordination between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method of defeating pipeline insurgencies.”

More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.

As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly anti-democratic implications. The leaked materials not only highlight TigerSwan’s militaristic approach to protecting its client’s interests but also the company’s profit-driven imperative to portray the nonviolent water protector movement as unpredictable and menacing enough to justify the continued need for extraordinary security measures. Energy Transfer Partners has continued to retain TigerSwan long after most of the anti-pipeline campers left North Dakota, and the most recent TigerSwan reports emphasize the threat of growing activism around other pipeline projects across the country.

The leaked documents include situation reports prepared by TigerSwan operatives in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas between September 2016 and May 2017, and delivered to Energy Transfer Partners. They offer a daily snapshot of the security firm’s activities, including detailed summaries of the previous day’s surveillance targeting pipeline opponents, intelligence on upcoming protests, and information harvested from social media. The documents also provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles.

TigerSwan did not respond to a request for comment. Energy Transfer Partners declined to comment, telling The Intercept in an email that it does not “discuss details of our security efforts.” [Click to continue reading & view images]

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Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites

In an 1868 treaty, drafted at Fort Laramie in Sioux country, the United States established the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. However, after the discovery of gold there in 1874, the United States confiscated the land in 1877. To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. government and the Sioux.

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Dakota by Elizabeth Jackson from OWU Media Center via Dr. Mary Howard

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Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

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Sacred Clowns

The Heyókȟa symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakȟáŋ. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.

Principally, the Heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyókȟas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.

In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyókȟa's don't seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness. From Word Worlds, Where simplifying complexity becomes art.

Nobody for President ~ NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on voter ballots

C. Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President Rally, 197610.12 Photo: James Stark

American Dream, George Carlin from Ishtar [Not Work Safe] Alternative from Felly

Nobody should have that much power

Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ Message by Mike Pinder

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Why I Think This World Should End, Brandon Sloan

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Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon

WHY NOT TRY LOVE AGAIN
by Jumpin' Jupiter