Pages

Monday, November 21, 2011

News Nuggets 810

DAYLEE PICTURE: A translucent shrimp on some anemones in the Kingman Reef halfway between the Hawaiian Island and American Samoa.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT OCCUPY NUGGET!!
UC Davis Chancellor Emerges From Press Conference (VIDEO) from the Second Alarm
"A press conference, scheduled for *4:00pm* between the UC Davis Chancellor and police with local press on campus, did not end in an hour, as planned. Instead, a mass of Occupy Davis students and sympathizers mobilized outside, demanding to have their voice heard. After some initial confusion, UC Chancellor Linda Katehi refused to leave the building, attempting to give the media the impression that the students were somehow holding her hostage. A group of highly organized students formed a large gap for the chancellor to leave. They chanted “we are peaceful” and “just walk home,” but nothing changed for several hours. Eventually student representatives convinced the chancellor to leave after telling their fellow students to sit down and lock arms (around 7:00pm)."
What has happened at UC Davis is SO 1960s-Berkeley Free Speech Movement!!  More specifically, rarely have I ever seen a university president so totally unmasked as a lying, save-my-job-at-all-costs, damn-the-protesters hypocrite!  CHECK OUT the video.  The president, claiming that she feared student violence against her, had holed up in her office for hours -- to finally emerge.  The students (hundreds, maybe more) have lined both sides of the walkway sitting in silence as she walks to her car -- quite a distance away.  She gets into her car and drives down the road -- with silent sitting students lining the road as far as the eye can see! I can't help but think that she is done.

Memo Reveals How Seriously Powerful Interests Take OWS (George Zornick) from the Nation
"This morning, Up With Chris Hayes unveiled a major scoop: the show obtained a written pitch to the American Bankers Association from a prominent Washington lobbying firm, proposing a $850,000 smear campaign against Occupy Wall Street."
These folks are Johnny-come-latelies.  The smear campaign has been going full-bore for at least ten days now if not longer.

It's Not Just Our Leaders Who are in a Crisis. Democracy Itself is Failing (Peter Beaumont) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The world's statesmen no longer shape events but merely respond to them, in thrall to market forces."

Dishevelled and Smeared in Sand, New Pictures Show Moment Gaddafi's Playboy Son Saif was Captured by Rebels from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"This is the moment Colonel Gaddafi's heir was captured by rebel forces as he tried to flee the country his family had ruled for four decades. Looking dishevelled, covered in dust and without his western-style glasses, Saif Al Islam looked a far cry from the urbane diplomat who tried to burnish Libya's reputation abroad."

Why China Can't Risk Any Bold Moves (Rowan Callick) from the Australian via Real Clear World
"China has ... clearly been attempting in the past couple of years to test the limits of the power that has been fuelled by its growing economic muscle. It has observed that previous great powers built a capacity to project military muscle to match their economies, and sought to test it first in the South China Sea. This was a bad choice."

It Might Not be an Asian Century After All (David Goldman) from the Asia Times [of Hong Kong in English]
"China's greatest challenge is not American strength but American weakness. America has no designs on any part of Chinese territory (unless Hollywood decides to invade Tibet), and the Pax Americana in the Pacific creates a backdrop of stability in which China's economy has flourished. If China looks inward more than outward, and regards America as an enemy rather than as an unthreatening rival, it will decline. "

Europe Fears a Credit Squeeze as Investors Sell Bond Holdings from the New York Times
I'm no economist -- but this looks NOT GOOD.
"Nervous investors around the globe are accelerating their exit from the debt of European governments and banks, increasing the risk of a credit squeeze that could set off a downward spiral."

Europe: The Crisis that Just Won't Quit from CNN Money
"The debt problems in Europe have been so persistent and pervasive that the debt crisis is beginning to feel like the new normal. It's been at least 18 months since the turmoil became a full-blown crisis, and many analysts say there is more pain to come."

Bloomberg’s One Percent Solution (Chris Smith) from New York Magazine
"Understanding why Occupy Wall Street has stymied the mayor at every turn."

Why Occupy Wall Street Will Keep Up the Fight (Kalle Lasn and Micah White) from the Washington Post
"Occupy was born because we the people feel that our country and our economy are moving precipitously in the wrong direction; that America has evolved into a kind of corporate oligarchic state, a “corporatocracy”; and yes, that what is needed is a regime change — a Tahrir moment of truth in America."

Lasn and White's role in the origins of OWS are explored here:
Pre-Occupied: The Origins and Future of Occupy Wall Street (Mattathias Schwartz) from the New Yorker
"This is how Occupy Wall Street began: as one of many half-formed plans circulating through conversations between Lasn and White, who lives in Berkeley and has not seen Lasn in person for more than four years. Neither can recall who first had the idea of trying to take over lower Manhattan. In early June, Adbusters sent an e-mail to subscribers stating that “America needs its own Tahrir.”"

The Homeless: Pawns in the War on OWS? (Matthew Reichel) from Alternet via Salon
"A death at Occupy NOLA leaves protesters questioning the motives behind the city's closure of a nearby tent city."

Occupy Poster Art Joins Lineage of Resistance Messages from Daily Kos
"is there any room left, any purpose served, by the good, old-fashioned propaganda poster? Does ink and paper matter anymore? It would seem so, given the plethora of powerful posters the Occupy movement has produced in just a few months."
Powerful posters indeed!!  Check out the story and examples!

Occupy ‘Bat-signal’ Creator Explains How He Brought it Off from Raw Story
"As Occupy Wall Street protesters were walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday evening, a mysterious series of images flashed across the facade of the Verizon building, located near the East River, starting with a circled “99%.”"
Very clever -- and effective!

Penn State's New Villain: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (Buzz Bissinger) from the Daily Beast
"The investigation of Jerry Sandusky began when Tom Corbett, the Pennsylvania governor, was attorney general. What took so long?"
Boy, I think that didn't take long at all!  One minute he's the Johnny-on-the-spot everywhere-on-cable-news governor.  The next, he's a heel.  Well, I guess the message here is ... heels can't hide their heel-ing qualities for very long!

Thousands Rally Against Wisconsin Governor Walker from Reuters via Raw Story
"Thousands of people gathered at the Wisconsin capitol on Saturday to demand a recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose controversial and successful drive to limit public unions last winter sparked the biggest protests in the state since the Vietnam War."

Krugman: ‘Only Fools and Clowns’ Believe Republican Ideology from ABC News via Raw Story
"“I have a structural hypothesis here,” Krugman told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour Sunday. “You have a Republican ideology, which Mitt Romney obviously doesn’t believe in. He just oozes insincerity, that’s just so obvious. But all of the others are fools and clowns."

Down with the Ship: Obama Would Beat Romney Handily (Michael Walsh) from National Review
"You may think Obama is eminently beatable, but unlike Mitt Romney, he has a solid base that is a dead-certain lock to be there for him next year: "

‘Anybody But Mitt’ (Jeremy Peters) from the New York Times
"... if you read, watch or listen to news media that draw large conservative audiences, it is not hard to discern a reason: a recurrent “anybody but Mitt” drumbeat from right-leaning pundits and media outlets that are responding to and feeding a conservative disaffection with him."

Newt Gingrich Would Be a Godsend to the Democrats (Paul Begala) from the Daily Beast
"What’s next? The Santorum Surge? The Huntsman Hiccup? Why Newt Gingrich would be a godsend to the Democrats."

GREAT ESCAPE NUGGET!!
The Classic Steve McQueen Movie Immortalised Three tunnels at Stalag Luft III PoW Camp, Now Astonished Archaeologists have Discovered a Fourth Called George (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"It has lain hidden for nearly 70 years and looks, to the untrained eye, like a building site. But this insignificant tunnel opening in the soft sand of western Poland represents one of the greatest examples of British wartime heroism. And the sensational story became the Hollywood classic, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen."

THANKSGIVING NUGGET!!
In the Pilgrims’ Footsteps, Through England and the Netherlands from the New York Times
"... the leaders of the separatist movement came from just a handful of farming villages in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and southern Yorkshire, most within walking distance of one another. This is not the touristy, thatched-cottage part of England, but it is beautiful nonetheless, and last spring my wife and I visited to see what we could learn about her ancestors, who in so many ways are forefathers to us all."

No comments: