Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt1968 – The Democratic National Convention in Chicago begins as thousands of protestors descend on the city to protest the on-going war in Vietnam. The 4-day convention is marked by violence, both inside and outside the convention hall, but is most noted for what a subsequent report will call a “police riot” when protestors and police clash in the streets of Chicago in front of a national television audience. Eight of the protest leaders are arrested and eventually tried in what will come to be known as the trial of the Chicago Seven. (One of the eight, Bobby Seale, is removed from the courtroom and eventually tried separately, hence the Chicago 7).
1939 – The Brooklyn Dodgers host the Cincinnati Reds at Ebbets Field and play in the first ever televised MLB game. The impetus for the broadcast was the World Fair, taking place in New York City, as organizers sought a way to show off one of their prize exhibits, a new invention called television. The broadcast involved just 2 cameras, one on the third base line that showed views of infield throws to first, and one high behind the batter showing a full field view. Although the video itself was of poor quality, with pitched and batted balls virtually impossible to actually see, the exhibition was a huge success, propelling both popular interest in the new invention and innovation to improve quality.
1839 – The slave ship Amistad is captured off the coast of Long Island after the 53 Mende captives on their way to be sold into slavery escape the hold and take over the ship. After killing the captain and several crew members, they demand that the navigator return them to their home in Africa, but the navigator, while pretending to do so, instead sails north along the coast of the US and to the tip of Long Island. The US takes the ship into custody and holds a highly publicized trial to determine the status of the Mende captives. The case eventually reaches the Supreme Court which finally rules in 1841 that the Mende were illegally transported and held, and frees them. The episode was recently popularized in the Steven Spielberg movie Amistad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP0hwVVUTac
Filed under: This Day in History |
All Things in Moderation 
I have a copy of Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman. I haven’t read it in decades. I imagine the OWS could have gained some pointers from it. Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom this season is being particularly brutal towards the OWS movement’s ineffectiveness.
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yello:
I imagine the OWS could have gained some pointers from it.
According to wikipedia “As the book has aged, the specific details of the various techniques and advice Hoffman gives have become largely obsolete for technological or regulatory reasons.” I’ve never read it, so I don’t really know what that means or if it is true.
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BTW on August 26, 1920 Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment, changing the face of the American electorate forever.
The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.
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Isn’t the 19th is the amendment Ann Coulter thinks we ought to repeal?
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BTW, I had to get a travel pod tonight for the top of the car. Given our discussions over the last couple days I was inspired to go to Walmart to get it. It’s a crap store, where half the boxes of stuff for sale look like they’ve already been opened and the employees tend to have an attitude of either complete indifference or rudeness. But they had what I needed (which is more than I can say for any other place not 40 minutes away) and it was inexpensive, which is just what I wanted since I will probably use this thing exactly once. And the place was packed with people, so it seems to be providing a desired service despite the drawbacks.
All I can say is that I’ve got expensive places with pleasant service and pristine boxes that are 45 minutes from my house, and a cheap place with ripped boxes and rude service that are 15 minutes from my house. Diversity and choice…liberals should love Walmart!
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“I imagine the OWS could have gained some pointers from it.”
How so? I don’t recall Hoffman himself being particularly effective. The person/group that OWS should have emulated was MLK and the civil rights groups, however that goes against their anti-hierarchy views.
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Worth a read:
“Introducing ‘The Tuition is Too Damn High’
By Dylan Matthews, Published: August 26 at 10:16 am
“The Tuition is Too Damn High” is a 10-part series that will run in Wonkblog over the next two weeks exploring the causes and consequences of — and potential fixes for — the skyrocketing costs of higher education. This is part one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/26/introducing-the-tuition-is-too-damn-high/?tid=pm_business_pop
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What does everyone think of the Syrian story today. I’m not real crazy about this statement from Kerry.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Monday that Syria’s use of chemical weapons is “undeniable,” and that “this international norm cannot be violated without consequences.”
In a strongly worded assessment, Kerry said that evidence now being gathered by United Nations experts on the ground in Syria was important but was not necessary to prove what is already “grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense.”
Are we even going to let the UN inspectors complete their work (although I read they were under fire) or are we going to go it alone? Anyone think we’ll send in ground troops?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kerry-obama-determined-to-hold-syria-accountable-for-using-chemical-weapons/2013/08/26/599450c2-0e70-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html
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We are going to bomb for the sake of bombing and to send a message even though it won’t make a difference. See Eugene Robinson’s column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-assad-must-be-punished/2013/08/26/3aaceb94-0e8c-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html
If a plane is shot down, all bets are off.
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“The Speaker made clear that before any action is taken there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly defined objectives and a broader strategy to achieve stability,” Buck said in a statement.
Republican Representative Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Obama must act “decisively” on Syria and that U.S. credibility is on the line. But he said Congress must be involved in any decision.
“I expect the Commander in Chief would consult with Congress in the days ahead as he considers the options available to him,” he said in a statement after Kerry’s remarks.
The international talks on how to respond to Syria come as the House and Senate are away from Washington for their five-week August recess. They are not due back until September 9.
The Obama administration could benefit from wide support in Congress, especially as Americans are wary of U.S. involvement in Syria.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday showed that about 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9 percent thought Obama should act.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/26/us-syria-crisis-usa-congress-idUSBRE97P0XF20130826
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JNC
IMO, Robinson threw that piece together after Kerry’s “War Speech”.
This line,
Despite all this, I unhappily conclude that Obama has to act.
indicates to me he’s floating what the Administration wants him to float. He’s making all the “right” justifications for intervention. I’m glad my daughter’s on her way home from Africa tonight.
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Apropos of nothing, I fixed my very first made-from-scratch dinner in my new home tonight. After two years of not being able to cook, it sure felt good. . . I’m enjoying the heck out of Baltimore so far! My house is lovely, my landlord is great and loves what I’ve done with the place, I’m close to all kinds of shopping from Walmart (which I still will never set foot in, Scott!) to Ikea to Target to Staples to about ten different grocery stores to several furniture and department stores, my neighbors are nice and wildly helpful, the recycling guys picked up ALL of the packing boxes and materials I put out this morning. . . it’s all good.
Why more people don’t move to Baltimore I don’t know. 🙂
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I may actually have to start calling people “hon”. . .
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Michi, sounds like all is as planned. Glad you’re enjoying your new home.
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jnc:
I am curious what your preferred posture towards places like Syria would be. Should the US leave rulers like Assad to their own devices, provided they are not directly and obviously impacting on US interests? Or should the US play an active role in trying to stop people like Assad committing atrocities? And if so, what kind of role would you countenance?
I admit that I go back and forth on it. I am instinctively inclined to want to leave the world to its own devices, but it is not clear to me that the US is worse off for having played an active role in trying to shape the wider world since the end of WWII.
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As someone whose main source of animal protein now comes entirely from fish, I’ve been following this story out of personal interest. I doubt anyone else really cares but I found some encouraging news in this study.
It looks like they’ve finally solved the mystery of why deep water fish are more mercury laden……………that’s a start.
But the mercury found in fish has to come from somewhere, if not from the shallow water. That means that about 60 and 80 percent of the mercury that ends up in humans is formed in the oxygen-poor, deep water, home to the bacteria that underpin the long-food chain.
“Organic mercury in the well lit upper ocean appears to be destroyed by photochemical degradation faster than it is produced by microbes,” says Popp. “Our work shows that a substantial amount of organic mercury is formed below the surface mixed layer of the ocean.”
The finding comes at a time when booming Asian coal factories – the newest culprits in churning out the compound – are sending more and more mercury into the atmosphere. That mercury ends up in bacteria, and then gets carried up the marine food chain to humans. Research suggests that the Pacific’s intermediate depths are becoming increasingly polluted with emissions from those enterprises.
Still, some progress has been made in curbing mercury emissions. In December of 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first set of national standards to reduce mercury pollution. Those standards are expected to push mercury levels down 80 percent by 2016, compared to 1990 levels. And, at the beginning of this year, some 140 nations adopted the first legally binding international treaty tackling the world’s mercury problem, outright banning or phasing out certain high-mercury content products and setting a timetable for emission reductions.
Fish with the highest levels of mercury include: the King Mackerel, Marlin, Orange Roughy, Shark, Swordfish, Tilefish, Bigeye, and Ahi Tuna. In the US, tuna is the biggest threat to human health, as a popular fish with a high mercury content. Safer choices with less than 0.09 parts per million of mercury include: Catfish; Tilapia; Whitefish; Haddock; Herring; Flounder; and Salmon.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/27/why-deep-sea-fish-contain-more-toxic-mercury-than-shallow-water-fish/
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And I love ahi tuna. That’s a shame. Salmon is also very good but it has its own ecological problems.
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And it looks like the debt ceiling is only 8 weeks away now, a little sooner than was originally anticipated.
I read a piece about this from Kevin Drum but it was too “political” so if anyone has access to the WSJ, they can read about it there. I have no idea how it was framed there so don’t blame me.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323407104579037181763668714.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
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Nova, if you show up today, do you happen to know anything about DC lobbyists receiving public pensions from the states (municipalities, school districts, etc) they lobby for. The issue received big coverage in our local paper yesterday and I was wondering if there was any chatter about it in your neck of the woods.
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LMS … I heard about that, but assumed it was talking about former state employees who had retired and taken up a second career. I know we go after state/local contracts to represent these entities at the federal level, but I don’t have any insight into the bizarre arrangement they’ve crafted.
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My biggest shopping problem so far in Baltimore is protein. I don’t eat non-USA-sourced fish/seafood, and I used to have to look for it, but could find it, in SLC. I have yet to find any US-sourced fish in any of the grocery stores in Baltimore, which amazes me. For red meat, I only eat grass-fed beef or bison, neither of which I’ve been able to find, and store butchers look at me in befuddlement when I ask about it.
I think I’m going to have to find a local butcher and fish monger. Pastured chicken eggs seem to be another thing that rises to the exotic here, which is not at all what I expected from the Glorious Peoples’ Republic of Maryland.
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Michi,
Head up to the Wegman’s in Hunt Valley. If they don’t have that stuff I don’t know who will.
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2nd the Wegmans. also, i get all our meat from http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ direct from farm. I don’t know if their delivery range is all the way to Baltimore, but if you contact them they might have suggestions.
also, http://www.redapronbutchery.com/ it’s in DC thought. but totally worth the trip.
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2nd the Wegmans. also, i get all our meat from http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ direct from farm. I don’t know if their delivery range is all the way to Baltimore, but if you contact them they might have suggestions.
also, http://www.redapronbutchery.com/ it’s in DC thought. but totally worth the trip.
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2nd the Wegmans
Apropos of nothing at all, Wegman’s provided me with my first ever employment.
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Wegman’s provided me with my first ever employment.
Wegman’s regularly tops various Best Place To Work lists. A pharmacist friend of mine jumped ship from Giant to Wegman’s when the Columbia one opened.
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Interesting how different areas are food wise. We have so many great choices for locally grown, fished and free range, that I forget other areas may not have the same sources. Or maybe they’re just too expensive. Another reason to stay in CA.
I love tuna yello, but not so much Ahi. My favorite is yellow tail which they catch off the coast of CA, but I also eat Salmon, depending on where it’s from. I wonder what’s happening with the Gulf seafood these days?
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Thanks NoVA, it looks like the “bizarre arrangement” may be a thing of past in the near future. Several states have done it apparently and are now regretting it.
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i made a note on a scratch pad. If i see anything more, i’ll pass it along
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How in the world did I forget about Polyface Farms? They’re famous! I think they’re the reason that I thought that locally sourced, pastured/grass fed everything would be rampant around here. I even have an extra freezer in which to put my community cow (which blew both my realtor’s and landlord’s minds when I pointed that out–they’d never heard of such a thing). I’ll also check out Wegman’s–thanks for the tip!
The other thing I’m looking for whenever I get lost (only twice so far) is an actual neighborhood grocery store. In SLC I shopped here http://www.harmonsgrocery.com/store-locations/harmons-emigration-market/ , which had become part of a local chain when Harnon’s bought it, but had a long history as a grocery store (rather than a supermarket) serving the neighborhood. I’m sure they’re here, I’ve just got to find them.
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This is a pretty decent forecast of growth from Yves Smith. Decent in that it’s realistic, not positive. There are a couple of interesting charts and links to the WSJ……………………………………………….again.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has produced two excellent reports shining a light on why the US economy will continue to struggle and won’t produce a full-fledged recovery.
In the first of these reports, the WSJ looks at average real US wages, which have fallen since 2009 and are eroding the purchasing power of consumers, denting consumption expenditure:
“Stagnant wages erode the spending power of consumers. That means it is harder for them to make purchases ranging from refrigerators to restaurant meals that account for most of the nation’s economic growth.
All told, Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight, expects real wage growth of only 1% by the end of 2014. That is “good news for employers,” he said, “not-so-good news for workers.”
Consumers remain the biggest driver of the U.S. economy, but without more money coming in, it will be difficult for them to spur robust growth.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/08/why-the-us-economy-wont-fully-recover.html
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I wonder what’s happening with the Gulf seafood these days?
That’s really what got me on the US-sourced seafood thing. When I was living in WA it was fairly easy–just buy from the locals–but after Katrina and Deep Water Horizon I really started trying to only buy US stuff. From what I’ve read, their fisheries are fine if people would just buy from them.
I never thought that I’d be such a picky consumer, but it seems to me that that’s to the greater good. Which, of course, destroys any Libertarian credentials that I’ve been aspiring to.
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“I never thought that I’d be such a picky consumer, but it seems to me that that’s to the greater good. Which, of course, destroys any Libertarian credentials that I’ve been aspiring to.”
can you rephrase. maybe i’m slow today. just not getting it. stupid CO dector low-battery started chirping at 4am. so i zombie walked around the house trying to figure out if what was wrong.
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Smoke detectors are what is wrong with the nanny state. The one in my house is at the top of a cathedral ceiling over a stair well. It takes a twelve foot ladder and a six foot reach to get to it to change the battery. I’m going to kill myself someday doing that.
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“ScottC, on August 27, 2013 at 7:02 am said:
jnc:
I am curious what your preferred posture towards places like Syria would be. Should the US leave rulers like Assad to their own devices, provided they are not directly and obviously impacting on US interests?”
Bingo. Assad hasn’t attacked the US or a country with which we are allied by treaty. There’s no reason for us to unilaterally bomb him to “send a message”, especially without Congressional authorization.
The options being discussed strike me as the worst of all worlds. Bombing for the sake of making US policy makers feel better, but without the goal or means to actually alter the outcome.
I’m in full Ron Paul mode on this one.
Edit: Charles Pierce is dead on. This whole “calibrated” bombing to send a message is straight out of Robert McNamara’s Vietnam policies:
See also:
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Michi seems to indicate that if she’s not a picky shopper and doing her part to make markets work efficiently thereby, then she’s not living up to her libertarian potential.
This is mistaken. Paul Ryan actually put it best on the value of markets when he was discussing them in the context of healthcare: