Frida Kahlo’s ‘The Last Supper’
(I’ve been enjoying rediscovering the breath-taking works of both Frida Kahlo [brief bio here, slideshow here] and Diego Rivera lately.)
The last one is here; Open Menus are the first category on the right sidebar, easily accessible.
For your consideration, I’ll offer:
‘It’s Not Too Late For Unions to Win Friedrichs’ by Shamus Cooke at workerscompass.org, Jan. 4. (Well, it just may be…)
“If the future of labor unions is in the hands of the Supreme Court, the outlook is bleak. Labor’s denial was shattered when Judge Alito signaled that the Court had the votes to decimate union membership nationwide. This specific attack aims at public sector unions, the last high-density stronghold of the labor movement. It also foreshadows that private sector unions will be further attacked, into dust this time.
The Friedrichs decision now seems inevitable, but nothing is inevitable in politics. The decision will not be announced until June, and this 5-month delay allows unions time to really express their power. A nationwide series of actions would certainly make the Supreme Court think twice. And the Supreme Court is especially sensitive politically.” (read the rest here.)
‘The ruling class meets at Davos’, 19 January 2016 from wsws.org
“While the official topic of the discussion will be “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” there can be little doubt that the topics of discussion will be more tangible and immediate. A conference document outlining the “global risks of highest concern” begins with the following items: “Unemployment or underemployment, Energy price shock, Fiscal crises, Failure of national governance, profound social instability, Failure of financial mechanism or institution, Asset bubble” and “interstate conflict.”
These fears are thoroughly justified. This year’s meeting takes place against the backdrop of the threat of a global stock sell-off, a collapse in commodity prices, deepening divisions within the European Union, as well as growing tensions in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Pacific.
The gathering of global billionaires at Davos embodies the very social crisis its participants will be discussing.” (and so on)
For years, I’ve done Davos satire posts, but I haven’t the heart for it this week, but here’s the website; funny on its own, I reckon. They used to list the ‘attendees’ by nation; no longer, afai saw last. Femen usually make a visit there, and I do love that. ;-) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? The extreme notables!
‘Open letter to Yanis Varoufakis: Welcome to the movement!’, January 16, 2016, at Roar Magazine
“Dear Yanis,
A couple of weeks ago, you issued an invitation for the founding of a Pan-European movement against austerity. This is to start in Berlin on February 9 with #DiEM25. You’ve already talked about this idea on several occasions, like at a panel discussion with other wise leftists at the Berliner Volksbuehne in October.” [snip]
“Seriously, people in our circles – the leftist movements, that is – are wondering whether you have seriously discussed this plan with someone from the movements against austerity in Greece, Germany or anywhere else in Europe, before issuing this call to action? Do you not think that the brilliant idea to launch a movement for another kind of Europe hasn’t yet occurred to others?” [snip]
“All these initiatives from Germany have been networked beyond its national borders. There are many European-wide forums, in which it is worth participating: Blockupy International, Alternative summits, Beyond Europe, transnational Agora-meetings, antiracist networks, struggles for transnational social strikes, networked eco-social struggles from Nantes via Val de Susa to Chalkidiki. Talk with your comrades in Greece, they know about this because they also belong to these transnational networks. In Frankfurt we were all together on the streets.
We do not always have to start from the beginning. But, we all have to unite for a real movement.”, etc.
‘DiEM and the movements: Varoufakis replies to open letter by John Malamatinas’, January 18, 2016, also at Roar
“The news is out: DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe – Movement) will be launched in Berlin on 9th February, at the Volksbuehne Theatre in Berlin. Before the official announcement and the manifesto saw the light of day, DiEM25 has attracted attention all over Europe. A few days ago, John Malamatinas, wrote an open letter addressed to me regarding DiEM25 in Neues Deutschland. Click here for the original German version and here for an English translation. For my reply to John’s open letter…”
(DiEM = Democracy in Europe Movement)
Jan. 18; perhaps Yanis listened to Malatinas ;-)
and last, but not least:
Please feel free to add your own content as you will.
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
whooosh, jason. almost too powerful for morning. but thank you. i hadn’t know that it was ‘an experiment’. the fire-bombing of dresden was of course…a warning whose consequences were known beforehand.
the poet, bless his eyes for seeing, his imagination for…knowing, his conscience for caring so exquisitely and painfully…
and bless picasso’s knowing and feeling the pain of not only the humans, but the other (once) living beings as well. i got to musing about the failure to imagine others’ pain, oppression, immiseration, torture, murder… is why it goes on and on. just reading the morning headlines online is almost masochistic any more.
oddly, i can;t find éluard’s entire ‘the victory of guernica’ poem, just snippets in this interpretation and contextual critique of picasso’s painting. but part II does show the reason for the title at the end. it sucked the breath right out of me.
enough to make one weep; likely the last spoken word song he ever recorded. even within the soft-voiced delivery, the message reaches out to pierce one’s heart with both controlled rage and an abysmal sadness. exquisite injustices, perhaps. Truth, for certain.
Song Premiere: “Time Dreams” by The Pines with John Trudell, January 15, 2016
thank you, amy goodman. thank you for everything, john trudell. now you live in The Dreamtime. Your ride indeed showed up; rest in power and ancestor memories.
iirc, all the leaders of europe were elated at the nazi bombing of guernica. sorry for the morning shock. getting ready for the Big Blizzard here in the East. whoo hoo! 3 day weekend.!
no, no. in the end i was glad to know, although shocked by ‘the victory’ poem.
but er…not to put to fine a point on it: it’s only wednesday. a five-day weekend perchance?
silently, O so silenty snowing here, but adding up. the recent blizzards came with so much sound and fury, then icicles on the roof crashing down!
combo of bad weather & office being sick. not me. here’s some lighter a.m. fare:
that was adorable; thanks. remember how harpo would always respond to the offer of a handshake by placing his bent leg in the outstretched hand?
well, i’m glad you’re getting time off from your sick office. isn’t ‘sick office’ redundant?
ach, the misery that woman experienced is epic. from polio, the bus accident, 32 operations, the cage frame, miscarriages…and even diego. how fine she learned to paint her pain, as well as appreciation of La Via. Herself as an arrow-wounded stag says so much, doesn’t it?
this one will slay you:
“Ontario, Canada – Ontario Power Generation plans to bury and abandon radioactive nuclear waste 400 metres below the bottom level of Lake Huron. Scientists cannot guarantee tat this nuclear waste dump will not leak.
The Great Lakes provide fresh drinking water for 40 million people in two countries. Why would we bury radioactive nuclear waste beside this precious resource?
Ontario Power Generation, the applicant, states this underground dump “is not likely to result in any significant residual adverse effects to human health or the environment, including Lake Huron and the Great Lakes.” Is “not likely” good enough?”
Brilliant.
and quite a lovely kahlo you posted.
“Throughout its short history Israel has been a dependable weapons supplier to pariah regimes, from apartheid South Africa and South Sudan to Rwanda and Serbia as genocides were underway. Now we can add Myanmar and Burundi to the list.” “Meanwhile, Myanmar is facing renewed scrutiny over the mistreatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, with a Yale University Law School assessment finding “strong evidence” that Myanmar is committing genocide against the stateless group. Israel has responded to these developments by embracing and aiding Myanmar’s military junta.” “Israeli arms sales to the African nation of Burundi have also continued despite that country’s recent descent into violence.”
http://www.angryarab.blogspot.com/2016/01/israel-aiding-genocide.html
beside how awful israel is, the burundi notice caught my eye based on your previous post. make $$ off arming the parties that will later require “humanitarian intervention.”
public health under capitalism is one big crap shoot. w/loaded dice. per the fundies at wsws today, Jerry Brown’s sister is on the board of Sempra Energy, parent of SoCalGas.
And since this open thread, Katrina van Huffle Puffle was interviewed on RT today (Sophie’s Choice? is that the program? Sophie’s world?). I couldn’t take more than 5 mins of her shilling for the Burn by saying 1) he will slash the pentagon budget by ending the “cold war mentality” 2) so that we can fight our “real enemies,” ISIS and thereby have the “good wars” at whose prospects democrat spokespoodles always seem to have just downed a bottle of viagra. oh please can we have a good war, like afghanistan! His & F. Hollande’s socialism…just what we need.
whoa, nellie! i’ll choose to do some of the required homework, as in following links and more links. but before finishing, then commenting, it’s about time to toast here. ;-)
now i did go fetch miz sophie’s ouevre at rt. how odd that van den puffle’s married to stephen cohen, no? but oh, the bern. i’ve been taken aback by how many alleged leftie authors have been ‘rethinking the bern’ lately, now that he’s ahead in some polls.
i’ve taken the abc video with ‘bern in his own words’ here and there to show his Imperial bent, and for my troubles have mainly heard stuff like you quote katrina claiming. the other is: “with all his domestic spending for da people, he’ll just HAVE to cut the military budget. how do you do that if the bern claims that the US military must be the strongest in the world’? what was the theme a decade ago? lean, mean, and agile’?
more soon.
first, i can’t talk about myanmar with anything remotely resembling intelligence, since i’ve only seen headlines, but not clicked in for a long time. but didn’t aung san suu kyi’s party sweep the last elections? have we heard from her about what’s going on, or would she even be a reliable witness? i certainly can’t say. (oh, dear; i got curious, the NYT says today):
“To the dismay of some N.L.D. voters, she has said little to challenge the Myitsone project, and has come out in support of a controversial Chinese copper mine, even after the police cracked down on protesters opposing it. She has praised China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a centerpiece of the foreign policy and development strategy of President Xi Jinping. Although she once pleaded with the international community, “Please use your liberty to promote ours,” she has been noticeably quiet about human rights issues in China, including the imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
The Chinese government, meanwhile, seems to have been stirring low-level trouble along the border in order to gain leverage and push its interests, both strategic and economic, in Myanmar.” well, the Paper of Record says…because: China. damn, western media agitprop makes it hard to know anything for certain.
Burundi: i’ve read at the guardian that one of the human rights biggies now has testimony that the killings are indeed ethnically motivated, as apparently no witnesses had gone on record claiming that. yes, as a cynic it reminded me of the then-evaporated/disappeared woman who’d rushed into the press building in libya with her claims of rape, etc.
now the angry arab’s internal link goes to rania Khalek at electronic intifada (she and kevin gosztola at (now) shadowproof do a radio show together.
in khalek’s sentence here, the link goes to the cs monitor:
“Meanwhile, ethnically charged annihilationist rhetoric has sparked warnings that the crisis could devolve into genocide.”
“Burundians have consistently pushed back against alarm bells that the violence over President Nkurunziza’s third term could devolve into genocide. But an increase in messaging aimed at pitting Hutus and Tutsis indicates a worrisome shift.” accompanied by a long litany of hideous calls by the G and police to essentially rape and exterminate tutsis.
now under khalek’s piece, there are only three comments, the first from a self-identified congolese human rights afrigans castigating her for getting it all wrong, and pointing the finger at sam power (again) for instigating this two years ago, and saying that israel had been arming paul kagame, who is ‘destabilizing’, and again charges kagame with arming the opposition and sending them into burundi. plus: “Plus it is also good to know that strategic minerals were recently found in Burundi which makes of it a new pray for the Western warmongers and their allies.”
the third one: journalist ann garrison whose one or two essays i’d brought into the equation earlier… including: “I am totally sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and a fan of The Electronic Intifada, but this report offends and endangers Burundian people and a Burundian government who are natural allies of Palestine. You are playing into the false Zionist narrative in which Jews = Tutsis (victims) and Hutus = Palestinians (perpetrators)” with a link to her 2013 ‘The Israel/Rwanda Pact’
So i dunno, is the truth out there? will we ever know it? who is Nkurunziza?
Oh cripes; it gets more into the weeds: ‘UN Delegates Split on Sending Peacekeepers to Burundi; Representatives from Venezuela, China and Russia disagree with U.S. delegate Samantha Power on whether to deploy African Union soldiers’
hadn’t wayoutwest said that china and russia had agreed with the resolution? did they change their minds? it comes with a 25-minute video by the global african program. 2L2Watch 4 me 4 now.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/UN-Delegates-Split-on-Sending-Peacekeepers-to-Burundi-20160122-0004.html
wow, hope you and yours are weathering the storm, jason. and that folks have found shelter. (rats; i can’t find the original dylan)
friday night
Don’t eat the snow.
i dunno, nomad. i looked in on his website, then at his facebook page…and at the one on ‘Jonas’. from where i sit, he really doesn’t have an understanding of ‘weather’ v. ‘climate change’, which two things are wholly different. but he doesn’t seem to be any sort of scientist, much less a climate scientist. only thing i found about his bio was that he had a solar power company, but not in what capacity he excelled.
hell’s bells, we were told not to eat the snow even as kids, and ish,, did you ever taste it? i did go as far as to google if any of his theories had been peer-reviewed, and all i found was one debunker site. he even gets pretty lethargic pushback.
yeah, i can kinda get his “weather modification extremes as mass distraction”, but look at the headlines so often: “missing blonde white girl” or extreme china/russia bashing by innuendo, or ‘crude oil down to $26!!!!’.
does he believe that la niña and el niña effects are false, as well? my understanding is that those are pretty concrete patterns measurable by ocean temps and such, but then, i’m a novice. but i will say that our area was forecast to have far more snow this winter due to el niño effects, ad we’re getting as much like the Old Days. not enough to break the drought, or fill the reservoirs, but it does help. sorry not to be more supportive, nomad.
Debunkers don’t matter. When people are pissin on me I’ll be damned if I’m gone call it rain.
A little bit of Bill occurs to me here.
But re manufactured snow, if you go to the commentary on geo-watch you’ll find these kinds of testimonials.
“Like many here, I brought snow into my home via boots, etc. The snow sat on the floor and took forever to melt, even though the temp indoors was 73 degrees. The snow on my dog’s coat formed into small balls of various sizes. I could not brush them off. I could not pull them lose. I had to wait for them to melt before I could clean my dog’s coat. It’s not snow, that’s for sure.”
please know i was not trying to piss on you, nomad. i was trying to find more rationality in wigington’s theories, especially the many stated underlying motivations. one of his sites mentioned mind control drugs, but when i clicked the link, my browser crashed…
for all i know, you and he may be correct about some it. and as i’d said long ago, i can imagine planes dumping all manner of toxins in the atmosphere to be rid of them. sorta a New Love Canal ploy or something.
but bless your heart, thanks for the invitation, but i do feel i’ve spent enough time poking around. there are o many other topics to explore, highlight, that i know are afoot in plain sight. but mulder’s new theory on the new x-files last night referenced the meme, but it all went by too fast for me to repeat how it fit in. second episode is tonight on fox. (holy crow, network teevee is more ads than program!) i did find a likely link of explanation, but it seems silly to post it. ;-)
I knew that was going to be misinterpreted. Definitely my fault. No, I did not mean you were pissin on me. The piss is falling from the sky. The pissers are the ones behind this operation.
“he really doesn’t have an understanding of ‘weather’ v. ‘climate change’, which two things are wholly different. but he doesn’t seem to be any sort of scientist, much less a climate scientist.”
Yeah. Like we can trust venal climate scientists. Aren’t they PhDs?
They violate the most basic fundamentals of science. There is no way that they can come to a correct understanding of the global warming phenomenon if a significant factor in the equation, linger clouds created by planes, chemtrails or not, is omitted.
The CO2 debate is a diversion. Here are some things you won’t hear the “environmentalists” discuss.
oh my; i’d missed this, nomad. thank you, but as i said earlier, i have so little time to spare. i shall have to yield. but i thought the jokes were usually about attorneys, not climate scientists. ;) mind you, universities were often (ahem) influenced not to get too into the true results post-BP Deep Horizon blowout.
I know. So many issues. So little time. And yet this neglected one may turn out to be the most important of all,
‘The chemtrail program involves spraying aluminum, barium, strontium and other toxic chemicals from airplanes at high altitudes. Toxins fall to the ground, ending up in our bodies, water, soil, and the air we breathe, which affects: crops and their nutrient contents, respiratory and lung problems, the immune system, and probably can seed various forms of cancer and other diseases.’
You’re breathing this stuff. Ecocide. Death
‘Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me – ‘
i’ve been mulling over how i might best respond, nomad. i’m fine with your belief in all of this (and theirs), but i’d feel better if you didn’t feel you had to convince me/us of it.
Yeah. I know what that’s code for. I’m just responding to your response. Not really trying to convince you. Just stating the case. Belief, such as it is, has little to do with it. There is ample evidence. Whether you choose to examine it or not is entirely up to you.
That previous comment was not intended as an attack. It’s the line about po’n muddy water on me that I was emphasizing. Forgot it was a diss song. Anyway, I have been observing this phenomenon for year s and I have determined that these planes are spraying. I have chronicled it in my blog should you care to look. I’m not going to pretend that they are not. I may not be able to stop them from pissin on me but I’ll be damned if I’m gone call it rain.
well, never mind, nomad. i will try to respond tomorrow when i have more energy after a long day of composing and searching for links/reading for a few diaries that i have on tap.
on edit: i have a date with the new x-files. sleep well.
the commentariat at naked capitalism had been laughing a bit today about this video without providing a link, or at least that i saw. mind you, most of them are heavy advocates for sanders. but what made it easy to find was someone having said: “bern’s for counting the cars on the new jersey turnpike?” this is, then: simon and garfunkel ‘feel the bern’
Unless he’s jest trying to go the way of Gravel, Bern better start puttin’ out the “Paul Simon” phillipics on our liberty (much less justice) instead; e.g,.,
And offhand, I always thought the rejoinder to the verse, “I just discovered someone’s tapped my phone” should be ‘George Bush’! Pick 0ne!
P.S. Prairie Dogs ROCK, Folks!
ah, he may just get the nomination, i really don’t care that much. i only care that folks seem to breeze by the fact that he’s another Imperialist (though not an avid neocon like clinton).
but i love that tune, and used it to anchor this diary at my.fdl right after van jones did a ‘book salon’ in which he was shallow, but at least defensive, and loads of comments and questions had gotten moderated. this piece was held in abeyance for hours while the PTB decided whether or not…to let it stand. wow. good times.
Hillary’s Hard (Deadly, Oily) Choices
CONVICTION. If ONLY!
In honor of Maurice White.
Let the church say ‘amen’.
thanks, nomad; i’d seen news of his death/crossing over/his ride comin’ for him/transitioning, but i really didn’t know their music.
RIP and Power, my unknown friend.
Yeah, Earth Wind and Fire were pretty big in the 70s. A kind of fusion of rock and soul with a transcendental overtones. Very upbeat and positive and uplifting. Probably their signature piece. Maurice White founder and lead singer with exhortatory vocal style. This is probably their signature piece. I played this album much.
the 70s…that explains my unfamiliarity. back then, we had no radio even to hear new music. once we moved to SW CO, all we had was a top-40 a.m. station. when i went to massage school in boulder in ’76, i was blown away to find that disco had taken everywhere. oh, my.
thanks; not my cuppa, a bit too pop 4 me, but still. hope you’re doing well.
yeah EWF was part of the disco craze, but they were so much more
the two tunes you played didn’t sound disco to me. but i missed al green and others as well (an e-friend says she could listen to him read a phone book, as i recall.) ;-) i heard far too much stevie wonder in boulder, but that’s not his fault. ‘songs in the key of life’?
Right. I should have said intersected with disco. They did dancible music. Maybe ‘boogie; would be a better word. I’m thinking Soul Train.
i got to musing about dancing. mr. wd never…danced, so i went to clubs w/ my girlfriends instead forever. one day, not many years ago, our fave michael franti came to our town. in fact, twice. the old man finally let it all go…and boogied. his self-description of himself as some aged hippie finally gettin’ down was too fun for words. (franti, of course, did some soul-wrenchingly and wonderfully tragic stuff).
you off watchin’ the stupid bowl? mr. wd said carolina has a sassy, proud black quarterback that has created some kerfuffle in the White football world. good.
lol. nope. no stupid bowls for me. don’t know frantic but looks like good stuff.
aged hippie huh. were either of you at Woodstock?
nope, neither of us were at woodstock. for me, crowds are scary-biscuits!
yeppers, disco/boogie. even the falsetto was big then. but i’d take electric flag (even the white dudes play the electric blues, eh?). this is my kind of dancin’.