Heat and crazy weather is the LEAST of our worries. Even if we are not already into runaway global warming the ELE potential increases because as it warms, more and more methane replaces carbon dioxide. Plants can't breathe methane. Plants use CO2 and exhale oxygen. When plants no longer have adequates amount of CO2 due to methane increasing , mammals including humans will have less oxygen.

Green stuff will die. Heat will denature plant proteins and disrupt synthesis of plant nutrients. No plants, no animals. No plants and animals, no food for animals. No food, contaminated water, decreased oxygen, and no humans... And just think we may have tecnologically and economically destroyed our own habitat to the point of extinction.

Bad weather outside? Who will be left alive to complain?

Why does everyone cast the economic policy as socialist or capitalist? The New Deal and The Great Society were neither; they were a combination plus more. The economy under their policies was the best the world had ever seen. Roll back reaganomics and a couple years of Jimmy Carter and we will return to those days. I think that the economy of 1978 would be a good place to start improving our current economy.

Quote cryptome.org: Cryptome sees the Web.com and NetSol suspension of Cryptome.org without prior notice to be as illegal and vicious as an attack by government, corporation, hacker or spy, and the attack is suspected of being on behalf of those who hope to censor and close sites like Cryptome using craven and shallow technical justifications.

Use of technical rationales to unpremeditatedly attack and censor are now commonplace by telecommunications providers, similar to the technical transgressions against the public by NSA and FBI, blessed by secret FISC orders and willful secret cooperation of service providers. This is an instance of that violation of customer trust.

On June 23, 2014 at 12:57 PM Cryptome received an email notification of suspension of service from Web.com's Network Solutions claiming a single PHP file has been discovered which posed a malware threat..
.....
Cryptome considers the way this instance has been handled as an unjustified attack by Web.com and Network Solutions, in effect, unwarranted censorhip. No other of several ISP shutdowns and attacks on Cryptome over 18 years has been as sudden and unresponsive.
.....
Cryptome operates several sites, twelve of them with NetSol, all of them except Cryptome.org, as well as sites hosted by other ISPs, like this site, remain open.

Unless Webcom-NetSol ends its unpremeditated suspension policy Cryptome will terminate its NetSol services and urge others to do the same against any ISP which assaults customers openly or secretly.

Arrgy: I agree! ;-}

There is a clear sollution, Pal. Vote Progressive. They don't take corporate money and are as loyal to the people as can be.

I have not watched Fox for so many years I don't remember how many. The only reason I know that some liberals have been on their channel was from YouTube praising how the liberal tore the fascist bastards up.

An opinion I share, PD! Clearly, a case of arrested development.

Your #90 post really rings mah bell. Like you, I do not feel obligated to extend niceties to right-wing assholes like OU812 who come barging in out of nowhere to deliberately annoy and offend us. I'll confess, I was shocked to learn how old (s)he is; I'd just assumed (s)he was maybe Matt's age. He/she is even older than ME!

On another note, the English language is so in dire need of gender-neutral labels it isn't even funny. I sure do get tired of all this "he/she", "(s)he" nonsense. - AIW

P.S. I think any liberal or progressive who engages on FOX is a glutton for punishment. I guess they like the paycheck they're getting out of it. But when we had TV, I couldn't stomach watching Hannity and O'Reilley "interviewing" people who could hardly get a word in edgewise. After a short time, I stopped watching FOX altogether. A little of that shit goes a loooonnnng way for me!

Recently released Wikileaks Analysis Article - Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) - Financial Services Annex
2014-06-19

The Financial Services Industry Sees The Following As Obstacles and seeks change through TISA

1.limits on the size of financial institutions (too big to fail);
2.restrictions on activities (eg deposit taking banks that also trade on their own account);
3.requiring foreign investment through subsidiaries (regulated by the host) rather than branches (regulated from their parent state);
4.requiring that financial data is held onshore;
5.limits on funds transfers for cross-border transactions (e-finance);
6.authorisation of cross-border providers;
7.state monopolies on pension funds or disaster insurance;
8.disclosure requirements on offshore operations in tax havens;
9.certain transactions must be conducted through public exchanges, rather than invisible over-the counter operations;
10.approval for sale of ‘innovative’ (potentially toxic) financial products;
11.regulation of credit rating agencies or financial advisers;
12.controls on hot money inflows and outflows of capital;
13.requirements that a majority of directors are locally domiciled;
14.authorisation and regulation of hedge funds; etc.

http://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/analysis.html

Thanks to WikiLeaks, public can debate alarming new trade deal--- by David Cay Johnston --Al Jazeera--June 23, 2014
"Big Business and national governments wanted to conceal the terms of the proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) while keeping consumers, unions, environmentalists and the vast majority of businesses in the dark. Thanks to WikiLeaks, they failed."

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/wikileaks-trade-inservicesa...

Aliceinwonderland: Very well said! Some people just can't see a similarity between refusing to bake a wedding cake for gays and refusing to service blacks at a restaurant. And there are people who still believe that both should be refused service just because of the color of their skin or sexual orientation. Some people should just grow up and just get over it.

And I sure do agree with you about OUs avatar. It's disgustingly suggestive. For a high-school teacher, especially one who is about 68(?), to display such adolescence is shameful. But, that's just my opinion.

stripey7: Ok, great, I found it! Thanks! Wow! So, now, maybe we can attribute the fall of the iron curtain, not to Reagan, but to Jimmy Carter? ;-} And I thought that old peanut farmer was a peacenik at heart. He was probably just like some of the other Dems that thought they could change things but found out who the real bosses were once they were elected. Or, maybe I'm just being a Pollyanna, giving the Dems too much credit for being duped. Democracy, as it is... especially now, is just an illusion and no matter who wins in the two party system, the ruling elite will get just what they want. They only have to play that two party game to keep the masses beguiled long enough, and hopeful and confused enough, while they raid the cookie jar. Once they have those drones laden with hell-fire missiles flying over American skies, they won't have to worry about a revolution of the masses.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html

Matt, as long as various sectors of the medical profession are motivated more by greed than by the desire to help humanity, people will continue dying avoidably and unnecessarily. Research & development are no different in that respect. I'll never understand why a comfortable standard of living isn't enough to satisfy some folks; why they have to be billionaires, or strive to be billionaires… I'm inclined to think of greed as a form of mental illness. There are many ways to award people's accomplishments besides giving them gobs of money, such as honorary doctorate degrees, Nobel prizes and so on. Prestige doesn't always have to translate to "McMansions" with olympic-size swimming pools and private jets. Personally, I couldn't care less about being rich; all I want is a certain measure of security and stability in my life, and freedom from fear. I more than suspect many others in this forum feel the same way. Not everyone is obsessed with wealth.

You said to Marc: "The thought that someone would hire people to expound right-wing talking points on a Progressive blog with a handful of readers - none of whom are going to change their views anyway - seems egotistical on your part." Again, Matt, your assumptions are wrong. At the end of Palindromedary's post #80 is a link to an article in The Guardian about that very thing. I suggest you check it out before dismissing the idea as "egotistical", "paranoid" or whatever.

Months ago, Palin posted another article that describes, in great detail, many techniques used by right-wingers to sabotage forums like this. Since Thom's blog happens to be a public forum, it seems inevitable there would be some people reading it without participating. So you've no idea how many or how few individuals that audience is comprised of. Anyone's guess. The idea that the government or the military would want to mess with it hardly seems far-fetched to me, especially after reading those articles.

On another topic, you mentioned the bakery that was in the news for refusing to bake a gay couple's wedding cake. I commend the couple for making a stink about it. When you're in business, you're serving the public, and the public is made up of all kinds of people. I think that when business owners start refusing to serve certain segments of the population, for being gay or black or whatever, they don't deserve to be in business. The only customers I refuse to provide services to more than once (if at all) are the rude ones. If they're going to be rude to me, they can take their business elsewhere.

You said "For all of the hot air lefties blow about being all-inclusive, tolerant, big-tent types, they sure look down on people who disagree with them." Again, that's a mighty broad stroke. Believe it or not, I've worked in the homes of many right-wingers and we've gotten along just fine, long as we steer clear of politics in our conversations! The couple we'll be working for this coming Friday are millionaires who got rich off the health insurance business, and they've been our clients almost twenty years now. They voted for Bush and seemed to think he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Much as I disapprove of this guy's line of business and abhor his politics, I've grown very fond of him and his wife, because they are lovely clients and have always treated us with kindness and respect. The wife even shares her home-baked cookies with us! Those two would be welcome in our "tent" anytime.

What we progressives tend to look down on are bigots, whether those bigots hate gays, women, Muslims, blacks, Jews… A bigot is a bigot is a bigot, and we don't like bigots. Got a problem with that? - Aliceinwonderland

ChicagoMatt ~ I never complained about anyones grammar except Kend's. His spelling is sometimes so gross it borders on contempt for this blog; and, I don't like being treated that way because I try not to present myself that way. Honest occasional typo's and misspells I don't bother with. You are right that we do agree on many things. However, your occasional selfishness and lack of concern for others is what really blows me away. The idea that it comes from a Catholic school staff member I find even more disturbing. I don't particularly believe that you are a paid sock-puppet like Palindromedary does. However, I would rather believe that than to believe you honestly mean some of the things you say from the heart. Nevertheless, honesty is important in any dialogue so please continue being yourself. I'll get used to it eventually--probably sooner than later.

OU812 ~ You are a different can of worms altogether. From the moment you walked into this blog you announced profound disdain and disrespect for this forum with your statements, avatar, and especially your name. You have the nerve to complain about being called names? You have asked for it! Actually I think most people here have been going easy on you. How would you like it if some stranger walked up to you with his pants around his ankles and his pride and joy swinging from his hand? Most people wouldn't be interested in anything that man had to say and would probably call the police and have him arrested. If that is the kind of juvenile disrespect you show this forum you have no business complaining about people reacting to it. You asked for it! We at least held our nose and listened.

Some of us Christians have a little saying, treat others as you would have them treat you. If you want to blow people off with sophomoric, selfish, and egotistical conversation while at the same time insinuating that they are all whores of the least common denominator you will get rotten eggs thrown your way. Stop complaining; and, be sure to duck!

Personally I doubt either one of you is a paid shill. I think you both, and Kend, are just so off the wall that it is hard for us to believe you are real. You should know this though, for anyone of us to publicly say the thing you guys say, we would have to be paid; and, paid well. I for one could not be paid enough!