Monday, July 27, 2015
The Devil and Dick Cheney.
"Dick Cheney watches television": The four previously unseen 9/11 photos that will make you hate the evil VP all over again.
That's the headline in the online zine "Saloon." The four pix are those of the evil VP in his office watching TV coverage with his leg up on his desk. I saw one and reprinted it. I also saw two, I think, of Cheney with a big ol' yawn in PECO. I didn't reprint those. IMO, they were outliers to the body language he exhibited consistently in the overwhelming majority of other photos. Twice, I began to write how impressed I was with Cheney's gravity in PECO; twice I erased to let the photos speak for themselves. When I thought others, most importantly President Bush, displayed body language that was more alarming, I noted and criticized it. There are over three hundred photos released by the National Archives in this latest batch, their release via FOIA request was repeatedly stonewalled by the Vice President's office and I wondered why. I don't see them painting Cheney in an unflattering light at all. I guess the veeps office did and Saloon certainly does so I guess I'm wrong. BUT I DON'T THINK SO!
Look: I don't carry water for Cheney and I didn't view all 367 or whatever of the photos, I probably looked at 100, but I did see one of Cheney with his leg propped up, no that didn't look too vice presidential, and I reprinted it but my God: If you look at the 100 or so I did and come away "hating" Cheney and thinking him evil, well, there's a job waiting for you at Saloon.
Cheney is responsible for the American "dark side" of 9/11, the water boarding and other extra-legal acts, the appalling expansion of NSA, the secret courts, the entire parallel legal structure erected after 9/11. The Snowden revelations when they were released resulted in the worst year of my life. I became estranged from my country. I wrote all of this. Cheney was "profoundly changed," I read, by 9/11. So was I. Putting myself in his position I would not have done what he did. I also would not have written a book in which I wrote that my heart pacemaker was subject to terrorist short-circuiting. I could see myself accidentally shooting a friend with a shotgun because I almost accidentally shot my favorite brother with a shotgun because I am a mechanical KLUTZ! But I would not have downplayed and attempted to stonewall that embarrassing incident from immediately reaching the public. All I'm saying is that the uncontroverted subsequent weirdness of Cheney was not, to my eyes, revealed in his behavior and body language that we see in those September 11 photographs.
I take from Saloon's coverage that hate is TOO a family virtue and in that I am in agreement with them. And with that, good night.
That's the headline in the online zine "Saloon." The four pix are those of the evil VP in his office watching TV coverage with his leg up on his desk. I saw one and reprinted it. I also saw two, I think, of Cheney with a big ol' yawn in PECO. I didn't reprint those. IMO, they were outliers to the body language he exhibited consistently in the overwhelming majority of other photos. Twice, I began to write how impressed I was with Cheney's gravity in PECO; twice I erased to let the photos speak for themselves. When I thought others, most importantly President Bush, displayed body language that was more alarming, I noted and criticized it. There are over three hundred photos released by the National Archives in this latest batch, their release via FOIA request was repeatedly stonewalled by the Vice President's office and I wondered why. I don't see them painting Cheney in an unflattering light at all. I guess the veeps office did and Saloon certainly does so I guess I'm wrong. BUT I DON'T THINK SO!
Look: I don't carry water for Cheney and I didn't view all 367 or whatever of the photos, I probably looked at 100, but I did see one of Cheney with his leg propped up, no that didn't look too vice presidential, and I reprinted it but my God: If you look at the 100 or so I did and come away "hating" Cheney and thinking him evil, well, there's a job waiting for you at Saloon.
Cheney is responsible for the American "dark side" of 9/11, the water boarding and other extra-legal acts, the appalling expansion of NSA, the secret courts, the entire parallel legal structure erected after 9/11. The Snowden revelations when they were released resulted in the worst year of my life. I became estranged from my country. I wrote all of this. Cheney was "profoundly changed," I read, by 9/11. So was I. Putting myself in his position I would not have done what he did. I also would not have written a book in which I wrote that my heart pacemaker was subject to terrorist short-circuiting. I could see myself accidentally shooting a friend with a shotgun because I almost accidentally shot my favorite brother with a shotgun because I am a mechanical KLUTZ! But I would not have downplayed and attempted to stonewall that embarrassing incident from immediately reaching the public. All I'm saying is that the uncontroverted subsequent weirdness of Cheney was not, to my eyes, revealed in his behavior and body language that we see in those September 11 photographs.
I take from Saloon's coverage that hate is TOO a family virtue and in that I am in agreement with them. And with that, good night.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Cheney on September 11, 2001.
Extraordinary photographs. Made public yesterday by the National Archives but I was serving my blackout sentence.
Watching the television coverage in the vice president's office. He would soon be taken to the President's Emergency Operations Center, PEOC. (Everything has an acronym.)
Suit jacket buttoned, standing straight, arms straight down, hands open. In control of himself, not overwhelmed, in charge. President Bush would arrive at the command center about 7 pm. Contrast Cheney's body language with that of Mrs. Bush and especially Lynne Cheney.
Intent, concentrating.
Contrast with the body language of Secretary of State Rice.
The horror.
Shock.
Don't know where that is. Not PEOC, the chair back is different. That is the same tie but loosened. He is talking to someone here but has a bit of a glazed look.
Stunned. Red-faced. I wonder if anybody thought he could have a heart attack.
He does look a little teary-eyed there. Don't think he was, just weary with worry. Hope he wasn't.
Going to write something. Thinking, concentrating. Man, you put that birthmark on his head he'd be a dead ringer for Gorbachev in that picture.
Eyes wide shut. That has to be a prayer moment...Praying with a coffee cup in your hand? But the alternative is one camera click caught three people blinking at the same time. Whatever, Lynne Cheney needs to work on her body language. Not helpful.
These are moving photographs. The stress, the weight of decision-making, the emotion are palpable.
That is Richard Clark, counter-terrorism advisor, advising how his efforts had been comprehensive and sure. Cheney and Rice don't want to hear it. M.I.T. guy, Clarke. Just like Krugman and Yan Song and all those people. Thank you, M.I.T.
Not so good body language there.That is Mary Matalin covering her face in horror and Cheney, it looks like, about to tell her to KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF! At least that is how I would have reacted.
Okay, Bush arrives.The real Commander in Chief arrives at about 7 pm. Look at his body language. His shoulders are slightly slumped, he looks defeated. Someone, I forget who, a CIA guy, was with Bush on Air Force One's trip to nowhere that day and said he was briefing Bush and all of a sudden Bush went silent and gazed into nowhere and the seconds and then the minutes passed and then the CIA guy just left. It made the CIA guy very uncomfortable. Bush was overwhelmed and did not know what to do. Hell, I wouldn't have known what to do either!
Cheney conveying some information to Bush while Andrew Card--"What were we supposed to do?"-- talks to Secretary Rice in the background.
Cheney, done conveying his information. Bush, dejected, steps slightly away. Cheney gives him time to think, feels awkward, puts his tongue against the inside of his cheek. Bush is a beaten mother-fucker, man, a beaten mother-fucker."What you were supposed to do, Andrew..." Wonder what that was about.
Thinking, processing.
Watching the television coverage in PEOC.
Don't know where that is. Not PEOC, the chair back is different. That is the same tie but loosened. He is talking to someone here but has a bit of a glazed look.
In PEOC. He looks a little emotional there but probably not.
Overwhelmed with feeling.
Laura Bush is speaking. Cheney, coat buttoned, listening. Lynne Cheney, not listening.
He didn't just watch TV.
Rice looks better, couldn't look worse than in that previous photo.
Rice looks better. Cheney looks pensive.
Good picture of Powell. Good body language, studying, thinking, processing.
Bush: there and not there.
Bush went wooly in the knees. He couldn't help it, it was genetic.
Bush is dazed. Card looks a little like Hermann Goering, doesn't he?
Bush cannot handle this and steps away. Goering knows and looks at him, concerned.
Look how young Bush looks. Trim. Young, trim, doesn't know what to do. "I didn't want to be a war president." Yeah, well bucko, being Commander in Chief comes with being POTUS. COMMAND!
Deer-in-the-headlights.
Tense, chewing the inside of his jaw.
What should I do, Condi? I'm SCARED!
Saturday, July 25, 2015
I make self-criticism and submit to struggle session. Took the last three posts down. That was me behaving like the total idiot I am.
The media has to print something, right? Every day the "dailies" have to print something. If there's no news there's no day! It's the media as capitalism's legendary shark--keep moving or die. Publish or perish! Those stories were not news, they were not public occurrences, yet I made myself an accomplice by reprinting the stupid headlines.
I will not publish anything else for 24 hours from the time this is posted unless the world is coming to an end (and I get wind of it).
The media has to print something, right? Every day the "dailies" have to print something. If there's no news there's no day! It's the media as capitalism's legendary shark--keep moving or die. Publish or perish! Those stories were not news, they were not public occurrences, yet I made myself an accomplice by reprinting the stupid headlines.
I will not publish anything else for 24 hours from the time this is posted unless the world is coming to an end (and I get wind of it).
Math for Russians.
"And so we National Socialists...take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the East.
"If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarly have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states."
OPERATION BARBAROSSA
NAZI GERMANY SOVIET UNION
Friday, July 24, 2015
His Struggle.
Lebensraum "was possible only in the East...If land was desired in Europe, it could be obtained by and large only at the expense of Russia..."
-Volume One.
"And so we National Socialists...take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the East.
"If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarly have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states."
-Volume Two.
No more volumes, Rooski, only two.
-Volume One.
"And so we National Socialists...take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the East.
"If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarly have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states."
-Volume Two.
No more volumes, Rooski, only two.
This your brain, Rooski: Hitler write Mein Kampf, "ME INVADE ROOSKI!" Rooski say, "He kidding." Churchill, Roosevelt: "ROOSKI?!" Rooski: "Swine Churchill, Roosevelt stir up trouble. Hitler no invade." Hitler invade.
Okay, Rooski? Number one. Number two: America say no invade; NATO say no invade. Rooski say: "America, NATO always stir up trouble, try trick Rooski, AMERICA, NATO INVADE!" America, NATO no invade.
Brain no good, Rooski, work backward. You see, Rooski? Rooski need new brain, see Rooski?...Okay Rooski, keep brain. Pssst, Rooski! America and NATO GOING INVADE!!!
Okay, Rooski? Number one. Number two: America say no invade; NATO say no invade. Rooski say: "America, NATO always stir up trouble, try trick Rooski, AMERICA, NATO INVADE!" America, NATO no invade.
Brain no good, Rooski, work backward. You see, Rooski? Rooski need new brain, see Rooski?...Okay Rooski, keep brain. Pssst, Rooski! America and NATO GOING INVADE!!!
"The M.I.T. Gang."
Goodbye, Chicago boys. Hello, M.I.T.
...
Now a different school is in the ascendant, and deservedly so.
It’s actually surprising how little media attention has been given to the dominance of M.I.T.-trained economists in policy positions and policy discourse. But it’s quite remarkable. Ben Bernanke has an M.I.T. Ph.D.; so do Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, and Olivier Blanchard, the enormously influential chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Blanchard is retiring, but his replacement, Maurice Obstfeld, is another M.I.T. guy — and another student of Stanley Fischer, who taught at M.I.T. for many years and is now the Fed’s vice chairman.
These are just the most prominent examples. M.I.T.-trained economists, especially Ph.D.s from the 1970s, play an outsized role at policy institutions and in policy discussion across the Western world. And yes, I’m part of the same gang.
So what distinguishes M.I.T. economics, and why does it matter?
...
At M.I.T....Keynes never went away.
...
[After 2008 crash] M.I.T. types predicted, correctly, that inflation and interest rates would stay low in a depressed economy, and that attempts to slash deficits too soon would deepen the slump.
The truth, although nobody will believe it, is that the economic analysis some of us learned at M.I.T. way back when has worked very, very well for the past seven years.
...
[B]eing right isn’t necessarily enough to change the world. But it’s still better to be right than to be wrong, and M.I.T.-style economics, with its pragmatic openness to evidence, has been very right indeed.http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/opinion/paul-krugman-the-mit-gang.html
...
Now a different school is in the ascendant, and deservedly so.
It’s actually surprising how little media attention has been given to the dominance of M.I.T.-trained economists in policy positions and policy discourse. But it’s quite remarkable. Ben Bernanke has an M.I.T. Ph.D.; so do Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, and Olivier Blanchard, the enormously influential chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Blanchard is retiring, but his replacement, Maurice Obstfeld, is another M.I.T. guy — and another student of Stanley Fischer, who taught at M.I.T. for many years and is now the Fed’s vice chairman.
These are just the most prominent examples. M.I.T.-trained economists, especially Ph.D.s from the 1970s, play an outsized role at policy institutions and in policy discussion across the Western world. And yes, I’m part of the same gang.
So what distinguishes M.I.T. economics, and why does it matter?
...
At M.I.T....Keynes never went away.
...
[After 2008 crash] M.I.T. types predicted, correctly, that inflation and interest rates would stay low in a depressed economy, and that attempts to slash deficits too soon would deepen the slump.
The truth, although nobody will believe it, is that the economic analysis some of us learned at M.I.T. way back when has worked very, very well for the past seven years.
...
[B]eing right isn’t necessarily enough to change the world. But it’s still better to be right than to be wrong, and M.I.T.-style economics, with its pragmatic openness to evidence, has been very right indeed.http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/opinion/paul-krugman-the-mit-gang.html
A ship sank.
Sorry about that. It happens.
844 people died.
Oh my God, terrible.
In a river.
?
The ship sank in 20 feet of water in a river.
How?
While still tied to the dock.
What!? How is that possible?
One hundred years ago today the S.S. Eastland, a Great Lakes cruise ship was at dock in the Chicago River. The Eastland had been hired by Western Electric to treat its employees to a cruise and picnic on an island.
It was a highlight of many of these young people's lives.
Passengers, many women and children, began boarding about an hour before departure. Forty minutes later all 2,572 people were on board. Then, at precisely this time, 7:28 am local time, the ship rolled over into the Chicago River trapping 844 under deck.
At dock. In a river. In 20 feet of water. In a huge city. 844 dead. How could this happen?
The Eastland sat too high in the water. Look at that. You don't have to be an engineer to see that that ship is sitting too high to be stable. It was incredibly poor design. WHO would design a ship to sit in the water like that? Everyone recognized it. Someone took out an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper offering a sum of money to anyone who could prove the Eastland was safe. It had had previous roll-over close calls. Once in the middle of one of the Great Lakes. Another ship passed and its wake nearly toppled the Eastland.
The Johnstown Flood, Triangle Shirtwaist, the Iroquois Theater--of all the disasters in early industrial America, the Eastland is the most outrageous.
Sorry about that. It happens.
844 people died.
Oh my God, terrible.
In a river.
?
The ship sank in 20 feet of water in a river.
How?
While still tied to the dock.
What!? How is that possible?
One hundred years ago today the S.S. Eastland, a Great Lakes cruise ship was at dock in the Chicago River. The Eastland had been hired by Western Electric to treat its employees to a cruise and picnic on an island.
It was a highlight of many of these young people's lives.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
All dead.
The Eastland sat too high in the water. Look at that. You don't have to be an engineer to see that that ship is sitting too high to be stable. It was incredibly poor design. WHO would design a ship to sit in the water like that? Everyone recognized it. Someone took out an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper offering a sum of money to anyone who could prove the Eastland was safe. It had had previous roll-over close calls. Once in the middle of one of the Great Lakes. Another ship passed and its wake nearly toppled the Eastland.
The Johnstown Flood, Triangle Shirtwaist, the Iroquois Theater--of all the disasters in early industrial America, the Eastland is the most outrageous.
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