It looks like no US personnel were killed in last night’s missile attack. Steve M thinks that Republicans are going to declare victory and move on, with Trump dancing on Soleimani’s grave during campaign rallies. So maybe we won’t have big lasting consequences from the latest Trump blunder. What say you?
Archives for 2020
On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Sunset(and a few ringers)!
Good Morning, Everybody, I hope this finds us still all well as it’s just 21:25 right now as I prep this for Wednesday morning, so I have no idea of what’s happened since then. I hope nothing.
It’s never a bad idea to have a big bag of rice, one of beans/lentils, lots of appropriate spices and sugar, not to mention have some ways to collect, move, boil, filter, and store water. If things get bad, I fear losing the grid in places and figure having some non-spoiling basics like rice and beans is a good hedge for your family’s safety, no to mention the portability, health, and yum factors.
Now, let’s hope moderation and calm prevail, and let’s thank Bill for today’s timely submission. I mean it – thank you, this beauty and joy is so very needed.
Since my sunset picture from Leo Carrillo State Park was so well received, I thought I’d devote a whole submission to sunsets. OK, two of the pictures are not sunsets, but sunrises(the ringers). These were shot at the coast(Point Vicente and Leo Carrillo) as well as here in Glendale and at the Griffith Observatory.
On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Sunset(and a few ringers)!Post + Comments (28)
Point Vincente, Los Angeles, CAJune 30, 2019
While it was overcast onshore, the sun was able to peek though the clouds to cast a glow over the Pacific in this shot from Point Vincente in Palos Verdes.
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Warren / Castro 2020!
Elizabeth Warren on her former students serving in Congress: "I think of this as one of these big divisions between Donald Trump and me. The people from my former life are rising stars in public service, and the people from Donald Trump's former life are rising stars in prison." pic.twitter.com/QWWkqcATyN
— David Glasgow (@dvglasgow) January 7, 2020
Because this is *my* happy place, right now…
“Get in this fight. In this moment we need to dream big, fight hard, and win!” @ewarren closes out rally with @JulianCastro pic.twitter.com/TwFaqSZ4kD
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) January 8, 2020
Holy cow! The Kings Theatre is officially full, and there is still a line from Flatbush to Bedford Avenue to see @ewarren and @JulianCastro! #WinWithWarren pic.twitter.com/bwh8JTiUH7
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) January 8, 2020
Warren received one of the most raucous welcomes I’ve seen on the trail as she took the stage in Brooklyn.
Per campaign, crowd is about 3,300 inside, 1,500 outside. pic.twitter.com/D3plhKb9NR
— Amy B Wang (@amybwang) January 8, 2020
Warren: "On another sober note, our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico need our help. We will fight to make sure our government is there for them this time."
— Amy B Wang (@amybwang) January 8, 2020
some scattered "C-F-P-B" chants as Warren discusses setting up the agency and she responds: "CFPB. The Nerd Squad. I love it."
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) January 8, 2020
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Warren / Castro 2020!Post + Comments (165)
Late Night Open Thread: The Way We Live Now
Unreal. Friend of mine from high school just received nearly $1,000 as a part of a settlement because Donald Trump’s businesses stole tips from service workers. pic.twitter.com/pQKRhb31Uo
— Zach Wahls (@ZachWahls) January 5, 2020
And don’t let anyone ever tell you that wage theft isn’t a real problem. It’s a huge issue and it affects millions of people.
— Zach Wahls (@ZachWahls) January 5, 2020
Unclear but hopefully
— Zach Wahls (@ZachWahls) January 5, 2020
It posted in my account! Now we see if it actually clears the fed! ??
— Andrew Redlawsk (@AndrewRedlawsk) January 6, 2020
"How is it possible that you’re getting payouts from the president for stealing tips?
In 2011, @AndrewRedlawsk worked as a caterer for the Trump Soho, when the Trump Organization was pocketing a service fee that was disguised as a worker's gratuity. https://t.co/MFiArfJWpI
— Michelle Legro (@michellelegro) January 7, 2020
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Australia is Still Burning: An Update From The Mighty Trowel
The Mighty Trowel sent me the following update for you all:
While there’s still lots of bad news coming out about the impact of the new years fires, here’s some good news updates from a country on fire. All of the missing people from Victoria have been accounted for and are alive. Also the Bureau of meteorology long term forecast suggests that the worst of the heat has passed (https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/signs-heat-may-have-peaked-as-outlook-shifts-to-milder-wetter-weather-20200107-p53pk0.html) as we have more moisture (though still below average) and lower temperatures (though about average) in store for us. In other words, the fires are expected to keep burning, but there may be fewer catastrophic fire days and hopefully we’ll have more than 5 days between them. Friday, for what it’s worth, is predicted to be really bad so positive thoughts and donations welcome (prayers too, but only when they’re attached to money or genuine help in the form of mobilised resources and expertise).
Speaking of donations, she sent along this specific GoFundMe:
Emily is a brilliant former student of mine and her very rural community has been hit hard by the present fires. They’re trying to raise funds for a fire truck for their volunteer firies (ALS: I think that’s Aussie for fire fighter)
https://twitter.com/Emily_M_Arch/status/1213595181674426368?s=19
And here’s the list of donations that The Mighty Trowel sent me for her guest post on the fires last week.
Donations can be made to:
Red Cross bushfire disaster relieve and recovery fund: https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-new-years-eve?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialorganic&utm_campaign=201913_drr_disaster-relief-and-recovery_don_transient_bushfires_none
Rural Fire Service: https://quickweb.westpac.com.au/OnlinePaymentServlet?cd_community=NSWRFS&cd_currency=AUD&cd_supplier_business=DONATIONS&action=EnterDetails
Country Fire Authority: https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/supporting-cfa
South Australian Country Fire Service: https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donate
Community support org Givit, active nationally: http://www.givit.org.au/donate-funds
Emergency Management Victoria community relief fund: https://www.emv.vic.gov.au/news/community-relief-fund-launched-to-support-fire-affected-communities
Some affected community members have launched GoFundMe’s for their towns – this is one the Australian Broadcasting Corporation posted, so I assume it’s legit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/xycjem-cudgewa-has-burnt?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet
Here’s another legit gofundme to put on the list, this one for First Nations communities affected by the fires: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-relief-fund-for-first-nations-communities
Open thread!
Australia is Still Burning: An Update From The Mighty TrowelPost + Comments (10)
Pertinent Read: “The First Woman Scholar to Translate ‘The Art of War’ Vastly Improves It”
If pressed to extract a single overriding ‘message’ from the text, it would be this:
Perform your calculations for everything liable to calculation, but also think very deeply about what people are capable of. — (from the Amazon link)
Notable misinterpreters of The Art of War—including Trump—view it as a treatise on how to crush one’s enemies rather than as a manual on converting enemies to your point of view https://t.co/2tr0kvWceU
— GEN (@GENmag) January 7, 2020
This might be the book that finally convinces me to download Kindle, even though I find reading more than two pages of text on a screen exhausting:
… Michael Nylan, a professor of early Chinese history at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of a few academic books of history and criticism, has completed a fresh translation of The Art of War — fresh both for the fact that she is the first woman scholar to do so and also because she has worked to move the reader’s focus away from the book’s brute military elements, which comprise only two of the 13 chapters, and toward its psychological and peacemaking ones…
GEN: How is your interpretation of “The Art of War” fundamentally different from previous ones?
Michael Nylan: The people who’ve been interested in The Art of War are, of course, not only men, but [most] tend to be interested in the war part of it when, actually, The Art of War is pretty much an anti-war treatise. It’s only if you haven’t been able to outmaneuver your enemies by various means and you’re attacked that The Art of War will tell you how to conduct a war as ruthlessly as possible — but that’s about two chapters’ worth out of 13, and most of the rest is far more interesting…Throughout the book, there’s unusual concern for those at the lowest rungs of society. There’s unusual concern that you don’t kill innocent civilians. There’s unusual concern that you consult people as widely as possible and that when you have to calculate going to war, you do so in the hopes that you will be killing as small a number as possible…
What’s a significant, specific divergence between your translation and previous ones?
For one, many of the previous translations treat it more or less like Machiavelli — all about deception and duplicity when, actually, deception and duplicity are pretty much [confined to] a single chapter that is usually translated as “spies.” For instance, the same word that means “spies” means “a gap that has been introduced,” so a lot of that chapter should not specifically be about spies but rather about how to introduce a division within the enemy’s population while keeping no division within the home forces…Was your translation a collaborative process?
I had three students fairly well along in their PhD program, all of whom had a specific interest in Sun Tzu, so we formed a little working group. Since one of them had done two tours in Iraq, he brought quite a bit of expertise that the rest of us lacked. I believe that none of us, no matter how smart, is sufficient unto a good text. People will have insights that would simply escape me…
Iran Fires On US Airbase
Things are still happening. Here’s a selection of tweets.
I’ll add more in the comments as they show up.