SeniorJunior

A Comment Storm 2:11 to 4:06 pm, Thursday June 29, 2017 Another Tom Toles masterpiece in the Washington Post ("Guardian of Amazon's tax practices:" DJT)....                               Sing a song o’ sick, Pence ... inspired me to write a "comment." I took the opportunity to plug single payer! (Predictable, you say.) duffworx   [That's my handle on the Washington Post.] 2:11 PM MDT SINGLE PAYER! Single Payer! Say it again. Finally the moment is here for the U.S. to join the rest of advanced civilizations in pulling the plug (teat?) out of the rapacious for-profit health insurance companies. A healthy workforce is a more effective workforce. People without the fear of medical bankruptcy and inadequate care are more productive, less angry people. The costs of Medicare for All will be less and far more predictable. IT'S TIME! Right, VP Pence? Hello? 6like Jerry B. ...

Professor Henry A. Giroux Knocks It Out of the Park in Salon.com * SATURDAY, JUN 24, 2017 07:00 AM MDT Manufactured illiteracy and miseducation: A long process of decline led to President Donald Trump  A deep-rooted crisis in education, and a long cultural and political decline, is what got us here. There's hope!  HENRY A. GIROUX I am wholeheartedly recommending you read this article. It's a straight-up super piece of reality, a facing of facts, and a powerful call to action. Just what Doomsayers are supposed to do, get us off our duffs. Go read it at  Salon ! A FEW HIGHLIGHTS. (Kind of like the briefing before the battle.) Cliffs notes of Prof Giroux's diagnostics on where the U.S. of A. is slipping off the tracks: -a plague of deep-seated civic illiteracy, a corrupt political system and a contempt for reason -the withering of civic attachments, the undoing of civic culture, the decline of public life and the erosion of any sense of shared ...

These are my guys Well, the YL in the middle is only a guest, but the rest of this motley crew meets monthly to solve the world's problems. For any improvement anywhere in the world, you can credit us. *                   We only wear the noses during the formal period of our meetings.                                           (That's me in the best looking suit.) *Pix courtesy the crazed PhotoShopper in the white poncho stole.

I know... LET'S HAVE A CIVIL WAR!! With, you know, guns and stuff. * Pamela Geller, Right Wing Howler Monkey In Breitbart, that ongoing tribute to the Trumpster Hard Core, Pamella Geller declares: The Coming Civil War She plays every card in the right wing meme machine. Typical of the hate-filled rant: "The left is evil, and they mean to destroy our way of life, our freedom and us. It took decades to norm their anti-Americanism, their hatred of freedom and individual rights, but they have reached their tipping point. And the long beaten and battered among us have had it." She wraps up with a clear call to action: "The deck is stacked against us. We must get off the defense."   Like, get out your guns? DOES THIS KIND OF RABBLE ROUSING ACTUALLY RAISE THE RABBLE? Yep.   For sure. Absolutely. Right wing ground is pre-plowed for hate seeds: Hate has, "I nfused right-wing politics beyond the gun lobby. 'Watering the t...

OK, More Hypersonic Scare Stuff Raytheon (America's top missile maker) says it could develop missiles capable of shooting down hypersonic weapons....       If   we get busy providing "sustained funding and a national sense of urgency." First: did you know Raytheon was Mr. Big in the missile business? (Aviation Week says they are.)        My image of Raytheon goes way back. Waaay back.          Vacuum tubes. That far back. Raytheon, high in the ham radio* pantheon of tubes.      ** Sort of looks like a missile Second: Can you image how hard it is to shoot down a hypersonic craft going Mach 6? By the time you get your pistol out of the holster, this guy has run you through (saber talk). Hot. IMPORTANT?   Tom Bussing, vice president of  Raytheon ’s Advanced Missile Systems thinks so (me too), saying, " The relatively sudden rise of hypersonic strike capability in China...

A Millenial Hit Olde Folks Don't Know About Are you over 50? Have you ever heard about "Rick and Morty?" I thought not. There is a "cell" of younger people who love the show and say extravagant things about its wonderfulness. In these times when prior punditry had it we would be unified by some mysterious power in the Internet, there are more and more cells of people, unified within their cells, but isolated from most of the other cells of special interests*, tastes and proclivities.  The U.S. looks more like a pomegranate than a cantaloupe - to push the fruit/melon analogy to its extreme. I will dream up a graphic one of these days. USA, USA! society in fruit form. ANYHOO... I watched Rick and Morty at my millennial son's suggestion, and I LOVE IT. Eccentric old genius and non-genius grandson as the lead characters (faintly Back to the Future -esque) + sci-fi + Simpsons sensibilities +  intelligent satire + over-the-top imaginative creators...

Look Up, Jefferson Beauregard * ** That kid in Peru is being saved from 8 seizures per day with cannabis oil. Over there, see the American veterans being treated for major PTSD with legal weed? Now, amidst genuine crises - like the opioid epidemic, voter suppression, out-of-control ICE agents, massive tax cheating by your contributors, a nut case President with a campaign that (seemingly) colluded with the Russians, banksters regaining their power to destroy lives, the elimination of Inspectors General... you know, real problems, you are going after medical marijuana ? With all due (?) respect, sir, are you aware that opioid overdose deaths are way down in the states with legal marijuana? (P.S... that reference link is to an ultra-right site, DailyCaller.com) Lordy, I hope there is justice somewhere in your department. * pix credit ** pix credit

More Outraged Than His Olde Man Number One Son Guy gets his teeth in a subject and tears it apart. He uses the most credible sources and looks for the logic and illogic in what they report.  He writes more extensively than I do, and I come away from his treatises better informed. Many of the heartfelt opinions in this long running blog were influenced by Guy's research and opinions.  So here is a new one, unfiltered through my inclinations.  You will come away better informed about the Qatari mess, the demonization of the Muslim Brotherhood and some historical antecedents. Scooter * See how outraged he looks?  A Guy Duff Observation Russian Psychological Warfare Hacking, Qatar, Oil, Neoconservatives and False Flags, Fake News and the Trump Legacy.  Terror at it’s worst. The Propaganda that Qatar sponsors terrorism is ludicrous to anyone concerned with facts. The United States is spending billions of dollars a year at the Qatar military base...

Better Than Average Conversation I've told you redundantly of my  writing in the "Comments" sections of various news sites. Since I'm of the liberal persuasion, my opinions in the rightwing comments get hearty disagreements, about half thoughtful and half insulting. My favorite of those was "Die in boiling pig shit, commie." Probably a bot. So today, I wrote a comment in Breitbart about Senator McCain's senior moment at the Comey hearing. You know I stand up for my fellow olde farts. I was pretty un-political in this. seniorjunior (scooter duff) • 13 hours ago Hey, fellow old folks, stand up for Sen McCain! We all have a "senior moment" now and then, but that's just a little turbulence on top of our deep rivers of experience and judgement. All those young farts waxing superior are so far behind in actually knowing what's up will change their minds as they mature... if they last that long. • CHyatt responds right awa...

Fossil Fuel Generated Electric Power...         ..... GUILT FREE! [Have you noticed a bug/feature on this elderly blog? I'm frequently picking stories, usually science, that I think are Big Deals, way undercovered by the press - I'm talking MSM. Examples: Pain killers ; Insect depletion ; Youthiness pills ; Dark matter, etc. I honestly believe the Big Media types have a blind spot for world shaking science news.] "Clean Coal," is that technology so hard to do it makes the term an oxymoron. But it was in pursuit of just such technology (unsuccessful) that led to what just may be the perfect bridge energy source between dirty fossil electricity generation and fully renewable generation. In fact, it might be so good it will be blessed as an "almost renewable" base-load generator, at least until we run out of natural gas. Science Magazine - the mag with the most cred, IMHO - did a piece on this wonder.  Read their article here . Reporter Robert F. Se...