What's next?

General Malaise

This is a quote from a U.S. Civil War commander fed up with some bozo he had to serve under. The story is here if you like that sort of thing.

"You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any orders to me, for I will not obey them. . . I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life."

In other news

Which social media site do you hate most and why?

"I think I’d have to go with Facebook. The details are too numerous to list here, but my general view is that it’s a den of superficiality and petty narcissism that acts as a massive black hole for time and attention – which to me are the two most valuable resources a person has."         Scott Garner

I think Scott said it well enough there. Please try to keep that in mind.

In keeping with the general a theme here I humbly submit a post on Edward Snowden.

Seems it's well known what he's in hot water for, but it's hard to judge just what people know.
What you hear depends on where you are to a large degree, and we all kind of believe what can fit in our head, so to speak.

We are all connected

"The purpose of whistle-blowing is to expose secret and wrongful acts by those in power in order to enable reform. A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts. Both purposes have been significantly advanced by the revelations thus far."  

Glenn Greenwald - The Guardian

Here are some stories to bulk up your information store:

• Story: what's happening right now.

http://falkvinge.net/2013/06/22/petition-to-preemptively-pardon-ed-snowden-reaches-goal-of-100k-signatures/

• Story: background and support for Snowden

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/22/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-julian-assange

Keep your minds pliable folks; how many guys have to get 'in trouble' for exposing all the misdeeds of  governments or individuals before we demand they are ushered up to the public mic to speak? 

If and that's a big if, if there's a chance anything can change and I'm not saying I think it can, I believe a big first step is for everyone to insist upon honesty. Transparency in government: at a minimum!
The more difficult steps that have to do with a universal respect for one another and the planet, losing this love of money (that has completely captured our attention) can come later.

Think about it, the whistleblowers are attacked, villified and hardly anyone is talking about what's being revealed and why it needs to be in the first place. Then it's a small step from exposing some misdeeds to exposing a rigged system. OMG, help my whole world is tumbling down around me!

The chance to work this out in a good way is now. Do things looks "out of control" to you?

If it's not attended to by everyone and I mean everyone (think: Gary Oldman in The Professional) things are likely to continue heating up.

Peace

Next Post: Brazil is on Fire

Banks for nothing

More malfeasance from the twisted reality of The Banksters. In a story from Reuters, your worst fears about bank practices are confirmed.
I've always wondered where that paperwork went to...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/us-bankofamerica-mortgages-idUSBRE95D10O20130614

Love in our Time

Here's a good one.

The Catholic Church is working hard. 

Working hard to keep the laws lenient toward sex offenders.
After all the (misguided) trust they've squandered, all the denials, all the back-peddling, the lawsuits and finally all the reparations, they're still doing their best to slam the cashiers cage shut.
This article is a nice reminder of just how they do that: hire PR firms to lobby against laws that protect children, punish those responsible or in this case, limiting the time that victims can come forward to press charges.
Read this.
Still keepin' the faith?

This article was viewed on Reddit.com

Props to Reddit

That's just the fear talking

Says Gomez, something we hear a lot of around here.

Here is some compelling testimony that's pretty hard to ignore. Do check this out.

From director Chris Smith (American Movie) this 2009 documentary called Collapse is yet another "I told you so" or "the sky is falling" depending on your take on the shit storm that is this modern world.  

If not every purported fact, definitely it's message is closer to reality than the average CNN story.

My kook-o-meter definitely went off during this film, but usually the nuttier the story, the better the chance of it being something real.

Of course by the slim chance anyone reading this is still in the everything-is-fine camp, they might choose another, loopier category.


The film is a focused interview with Michael Ruppert who tells a riveting story of how he apparently predicted our most recent financial crisis in his newsletter 'From the Wilderness'.

Peak oil is the center of his we-are-doomed treatise although he doesn't have much good to say about the intelligence agencies (US or otherwise), the Federal Reserve or the Oligarchs who rule the world either.
Hey, who does?

Ruppert was a police officer in another life has turned independent reporter and talks us through crises after crises in economics, energy, and the environment. Par-tay!

What to take away from his 'knowing' what was going to happen could spawn another series of documentaries. I say bring it. People have had a sense of the rigged game we're in since the
strong wrested power from the weak ages ago.

Right on Michael. Now what?

And now this...

If you're not too distracted by the bombs, you might want to check in on the fight-for-control-of-the- internet. Dah-dan-dan.
Yes, 'legislators' are still working tirelessly toward finding a 'solution' to 'help protect us' from hackers and other unspecified threats.
Here's a story on the continued efforts to pass CISPA with some interesting facts about the busy bees working to make it law.
In case my quote marks didn't make it perfectly clear, the US Congress and all those with a vested interest are using INTERNET SECURITY as cover for a host of schemes. Lots of money to be made and make no mistake, the potential for the free flow of information via the internet is the greatest threat to the ruling powers since people started to read.
Tell a friend.
....and remember, safety never takes a holiday!

Eat your Veggies

Uruguay Government Says Don't Smoke Pot -- Better To Eat It Instead - All News Is Global |

We're not making the progress had hoped, but still some people are trying to do something.
Here's a blurb on where it stands at the moment. I like the idea about eating it. Hmmm?



Peace

Get to Steppin'

It's the time of year here in Uruguay to start all the drumming and marching.
La Llamadas (pronounced JA-MA-DAS ) is the Carnevâl-esq parade, replete with competing groups of drums, dancers and a wide range of colorful performers. I've posted my experience at this event and I'm glad I went. It's a genuine part of life here; understand things of this nature and you have some chance of relating to life here.

However, I have had enough of it. I never liked parades much and it's all just too excited, really.

over heated?

The weather has cooled a lot since Thursday, the first of the two nights of Llamadas. It was soooo hot, I felt bad for anyone trying to get anything done in that weather. I know we suffered plenty at CS.
I feel bad for the dancing girls of that festival anyway. All the shaking, all that smiling, my god. Even with enthusiasm for what your're doing, 4 hours of being all jazzed up in that heat seems too much to ask of anyone.

This past Friday's weather forecast called for a big storm. Seriously, it was code orange or something. The thing did pass, although early that morning and it was intense. It blew in quickly preceded by quick successions of lightening flashes. Then big rain drops, slow at first, turning into a wild driving rainstorm. Then as suddenly as it began, it was over.



As is this post. Thanks for tagging along.