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The ‘russians’ may have accessed Rep stuff, but that doesn’t mean wikileaks had an agenda. We dont know where wikileaks got its info from.
Moreover, i dont care if wikileaks had an ‘agenda’. What if they ‘did’ prefer Trump over Hillary? Its not a crime. Its just an agenda. And since they only told the truth about Hillary, it doesn’t seem out of line to me. I mean telling the truth while having an agenda is not the worst thing in the world.
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vWV, I’m with you on most things political, and have learned a lot from you over the years. In some cases, it took me awhile, but I eventually got there.
;>)
But in this case? I’m not seeing it. And what Assange and the Russian hackers did actually is a “crime.” They stole private information without permission and, as mentioned, none of it, not one iota of it, as far as I can see, tells us anything that benefits us, the planet, the country, or advances the public interest in any way.
For me, it would be different if the exposure included the things I mention above. If it exposed dark and sinister secret plans to wreak havoc on the innocent and the planet. But nothing that came out comes close to any of that. It just gives people the general sense that “these people are uniquely corrupt!” even though no individual email actually shows anything beyond the banal. And the only way that generalized feeling could take hold is the absence of similar leaking of GOP emails.
Chomsky (and ZN) could describe the “semiotic” rationale behind that a hell of a lot better than my feeble attempts. But we humans basically understand the world through language, and we understand language in relation to itself and the world. When language is lopped off in midstream, and given to us in fragments, without context, our understanding is distorted. The more lopped off and fragmented, the more distorted it gets. We need to see X in relation to Y and Z and every other letter to really get a sense of what X means. Throw it out there all alone, and humans can’t “get it.”
In short, I think what Assange, Wikileaks, the Russian hackers, et al did was immoral, unethical and dangerous for the country. It was theft without any benefit to the public whatsoever (in my view), and it helped give us Trump and the hard-right GOP.
Tilikum died at the age of 36. Can’t help but wonder if the stress of living in a tiny tank contributed to his death.
This is Tilikum in his living quarters…
Wild orcas can live to 90 and one wild orca called “Granny” has been missing for several months and is presumed dead. She was 106.
If you’ve never seen “Blackfish” I highly recommend it. It shines a light on the cruelty these animals are subjected to while living in confined conditions in marine parks. There are no documented cases of a wild orca killing a human. Tilikum killed three. This is most likely due to the stress of living in confinement.
That seems self-evident. They’re not supposed to be couped up like that. And it’s monstrous what we do to animals, in all kinds of ways. Zoos, aquariums, theme parks, etc. etc. The food chain, etc.
I should become a full-on vegan. Though I do my best to buy sustainable, organic, “free range” whenever possible. But it’s not enough, I know.
Freedom for animals, hopefully, becomes a big time social justice issue. Social justice can’t be just about us, obviously. Living in harmony with the planet has to become a part of that as well.
We’ll have to wait and find out. I know my being clued in to this election (in reality I paid attention to what was happening in the real world) would give you the impression that I am in the loop, but I am not.
I’m not asking you because I think you were in the loop. I’m asking you because you use the phrase a lot and then tell us we shouldn’t “fear it.” We should “embrace it.”
So what is “it,” exactly? One would think you wouldn’t bother repeating a phrase if you didn’t know what it meant. And one would also think you know the plan to implement this and make it happen, or you wouldn’t say we should embrace it, etc.
This is pretty basic stuff. Just askin’.
We’ll see. Why fear the prospect of Making America Great Again?
If you’re okay with embracing something you can’t define, without a plan to make the something you can’t define work, go for it. But you shouldn’t expect others to join you in the embrace of the non-existent.
Trump is expecting his supporters to be just like the subjects of this masterpiece by Brueghel:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1568) The Blind Leading the BlindThis isn’t about the pledge of allegiance or the Lord’s Prayer (although I’m opposed to students being asked to recite either in a public school…).
This is what it’s about…
Ms. DeVos is a chip off the old block. At a 2001 gathering of conservative Christian philanthropists, she singled out education reform as a way to “advance God’s kingdom.”
She wants to use education to forward the religious right’s agenda.
That is HER opinion. You vote for YOUR school board accordingly.
She’ll be setting federal policy, bnw. So that makes it a national problem on a huge scale.
Trump has brought in a host of swamp creatures, including the most billionaires, lobbyists, CEOs and Wall Street big wigs in our history. And most of the people he’s tasked with running this or that agency have a long record of battling them (in order to increase their own wealth), undermining them (in order to increase their own wealth), suing them (to increase their own wealth), or seeking their destruction. Devos is easily one of the worst possible choices for the job she’s going to hold. She wants to do away with public education itself, and privatize it to make way for a theocracy instead.
That’s like the Rams hiring a football coach who hates the NFL, hates LA, hates football in general, and hates team sports.
