text:
Online ads: Sadly, they are necessary to pay the bills
Earlier this year, I tried an experiment with this website. I dropped advertising because I felt it had gotten in the way of communicating with words and photos.
Good intentions but one that violates the economic rules of survival.
It takes money to put a comprehensive website on the internet and keep it up and running.
Blue Ridge Muse is one of several websites I operate. They require a dedicated server. As a semi-retired man in his 70s, I live on a pretty-much fixed income. Costs go up. Income does not.
Taking ads off Blue Ridge Muse added additional drains on our resources and I had to make a decision: Take Muse down or accept ads, so I could keep it up and running.
So ads have returned. So far, thankfully, I haven't received a single complaint about their appearance of Muse. Readers of Capitol Hill Blue have lived with ads since its creation in 1994. It uses wire service articles and syndicated columns that require payment and ads help pay some — but not all — of the cost.
Since Muse is a one-person operation who doesn't draw a salary — me — the costs are lower but even so, the costs of maintaining dedicated server space still passes the income level of ads. They reduce the load on our existing resources, enough — we hope — to keep it and our other sites going.
Sadly, online news suffers many of the challenges that print edition face. Ad revenue income is down across the board. Even media powerhouses like The Washington Post and New York Times must use subscription services to supplement their ad income. It is frustrating to most of us to click on a link that seems to offer information or a good read and find that reading the full article requires a subscription.
I made a decision years ago that I would never put up a "paywall" requiring readers of Capitol Hill Blue to read the political news we publish. I'd rather shut the thing down than do that to our readers. Many of them have been loyal since Blue went live 25+ years ago ad continues as the oldest continually published political news site on the internet. Many of those who help keep the site up and running are volunteers who, like me, work without payment to try to keep non-partisan political news on the web.
Taking news online is not automatic salvation. Many news sites have laid off staff members in recent months. HuffPost cut 7% of its staff earlier this year. BuzzFeed trimmed its ranks by 15 percent. USA Today's online operations have reduced its staff.
"Economic headwinds are hitting newsrooms across the industry, affecting once-bullish digital shops and longstanding newspapers alike," reports CNN.
The digital layoffs are part of the loss of 7,200 jobs in media this year.
In 2012, Jeffrey Cole of the Center for the Digital Future gave newspapers only about five years to survive.
Now, seven years later, he admits his forecast was "a bit off."
Jeff Bezos, currently the richest person in the world, stepped in to buy the Washington Post, while the ailing Los Angeles Times was recently bought by the wealthiest man in Southern California. Two well-regarded newspapers, The Guardian in the U.K. and the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times), are controlled by foundations not subject to the pressures of investors. All the billionaire or foundation papers are winning Pulitzer Prizes and doing better journalism than ever.
One of the reason newspaper have survived was the improbable election of Donald Trump as president.
The best trend of all is that a controversial president has greatly increased interest in news (both newspapers and television). When people want to know what is happening in their world they go to professional journalists. There is even a movement in 2018 to scrub Facebook and as much of the internet as possible of "fake" news.
Everything about the future of newspapers is bright except the future of holding the paper in our hands.


Culverbach dresser's weathered driftwood finish evokes such an ethereal vibe – exactly what you need for your serene master suite. Clean lines and simple yet substantial hardware make for a timeless look you'll love living with for years to come. Six spacious drawers offer ample storage for a wardrobe and spare bed linens.


text:
/* This code was originally forked from: */

/* Open SoundControl kit in C++                                              */
/* Copyright (C) 2002-2004 libOSC++ contributors. See AUTHORS                */
/*                                                                           */
/* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or             */
/* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public                */
/* License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either              */
/* version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.        */
/*                                                                           */
/* This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,           */
/* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of            */
/* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU         */
/* Lesser General Public License for more details.                           */
/*                                                                           */
/* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public          */
/* License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software       */
/* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA */
/*                                                                           */
/* For questions regarding this program contact                              */
/* Daniel Holth <dholth@fastmail.fm> or visit                                */
/* http://wiretap.stetson.edu/                                               */

/* In the sprit of the public domain, my modifications to this file are also */
/* dedicated to the public domain. Daniel Holth, Oct. 2004                   */

/* ChangeLog:
 *
 * 2004-10-29 Import, convert to C++, begin OSC syntax changes. -dwh
 *              OSC syntax changes are now working, needs more testing.
 *
 */

// Original header and syntax:

/*
 * robust glob pattern matcher
 * ozan s. yigit/dec 1994
 * public domain
 *
 * glob patterns:
 *  *   matches zero or more characters
 *  ?   matches any single character
 *  [set]   matches any character in the set
 *  [^set]  matches any character NOT in the set
 *      where a set is a group of characters or ranges. a range
 *      is written as two characters seperated with a hyphen: a-z denotes
 *      all characters between a to z inclusive.
 *  [-set]  set matches a literal hypen and any character in the set
 *  []set]  matches a literal close bracket and any character in the set
 *
 *  char    matches itself except where char is '*' or '?' or '['
 *  \char   matches char, including any pattern character
 *
 * examples:
 *  a*c     ac abc abbc ...
 *  a?c     acc abc aXc ...
 *  a[a-z]c     aac abc acc ...
 *  a[-a-z]c    a-c aac abc ...
 *
 * $Log$
 * Revision 1.1  2004/11/19 23:00:57  theno23
 * Added lo_send_timestamped
 *
 * Revision 1.3  1995/09/14  23:24:23  oz
 * removed boring test/main code.
 *
 * Revision 1.2  94/12/11  10:38:15  oz
 * cset code fixed. it is now robust and interprets all
 * variations of cset [i think] correctly, including [z-a] etc.
 *
 * Revision 1.1  94/12/08  12:45:23  oz
 * Initial revision
 */

#include "lo/lo.h"

#ifndef NEGATE
#define NEGATE  '!'
#endif

#ifndef true
#define true 1
#endif
#ifndef false
#define false 0
#endif

int lo_pattern_match(const char *str, const char *p)
{
    int negate;
    int match;
    char c;

    while (*p) {
        if (!*str && *p != '*')
            return false;

        switch (c = *p++) {

        case '*':
            while (*p == '*' && *p != '/')
                p++;

            if (!*p)
                return true;

//                if (*p != '?' && *p != '[' && *p != '\\')
            if (*p != '?' && *p != '[' && *p != '{')
                while (*str && *p != *str)
                    str++;

            while (*str) {
                if (lo_pattern_match(str, p))
                    return true;
                str++;
            }
            return false;

        case '?':
            if (*str)
                break;
            return false;
            /*
             * set specification is inclusive, that is [a-z] is a, z and
             * everything in between. this means [z-a] may be interpreted
             * as a set that contains z, a and nothing in between.
             */
        case '[':
            if (*p != NEGATE)
                negate = false;
            else {
                negate = true;
                p++;
            }

            match = false;

            while (!match && (c = *p++)) {
                if (!*p)
                    return false;
                if (*p == '-') {        /* c-c */
                    if (!*++p)
                        return false;
                    if (*p != ']') {
                        if (*str == c || *str == *p ||
                            (*str > c && *str < *p))
                            match = true;
                    } else {    /* c-] */
                        if (*str >= c)
                            match = true;
                        break;
                    }
                } else {        /* cc or c] */
                    if (c == *str)
                        match = true;
                    if (*p != ']') {
                        if (*p == *str)
                            match = true;
                    } else
                        break;
                }
            }

            if (negate == match)
                return false;
            /*
             * if there is a match, skip past the cset and continue on
             */
            while (*p && *p != ']')
                p++;
            if (!*p++)          /* oops! */
                return false;
            break;

            /*
             * {astring,bstring,cstring}
             */
        case '{':
            {
                // *p is now first character in the {brace list}
                const char *place = str;        // to backtrack
                const char *remainder = p;      // to forwardtrack

                // find the end of the brace list
                while (*remainder && *remainder != '}')
                    remainder++;
                if (!*remainder++)      /* oops! */
                    return false;

                c = *p++;

                while (c) {
                    if (c == ',') {
                        if (lo_pattern_match(str, remainder)) {
                            return true;
                        } else {
                            // backtrack on test string
                            str = place;
                            // continue testing,
                            // skip comma
                            if (!*p++)  // oops
                                return false;
                        }
                    } else if (c == '}') {
                        // continue normal pattern matching
                        if (!*p && !*str)
                            return true;
                        str--;  // str is incremented again below
                        break;
                    } else if (c == *str) {
                        str++;
                        if (!*str && *remainder)
                            return false;
                    } else {    // skip to next comma
                        str = place;
                        while (*p != ',' && *p != '}' && *p)
                            p++;
                        if (*p == ',')
                            p++;
                        else if (*p == '}') {
                            return false;
                        }
                    }
                    c = *p++;
                }
            }

            break;

            /* Not part of OSC pattern matching
               case '\\':
               if (*p)
               c = *p++;
             */

        default:
            if (c != *str)
                return false;
            break;

        }
        str++;
    }

    return !*str;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Tag Archives: Electoral College
Why Biden Must Win: It is not about Democracy, its about Fascism
[Prefatory Note: Responses to an Iranian journalist, Javad Heiran-Nia Interview Questions on U.S. Elections (8 Oct 2020).]
What is the most important issue affecting the upcoming US presidential election? (Economy; Foreign Policy; Domestic Policy; etc.)
For the voters in America the most important issues at this time are the (mis)management of the health crisis by Trump and the impact on the recovery of the U.S. economy. At this point there is a surge of criticism directed at the present U.S. leadership with respect to the Coronavirus pandemic: more infections and deaths per capita than almost any country in the world, intentional disregard of guidance by health specialists, dishonest and irresponsible reassurances, and economic relief favoring the rich and influential while understating the economic distress caused others by the loss of jobs, food insecurities, and threats of eviction. There is little interest, at least up to this point, in foreign policy with the single exception of international economic relations and geopolitical tensions with China. Both candidates for the presidency seem to adopt anti-Chinese positions, but Biden seems less militaristic and provocative than Trump. Biden refrains from blaming China for the virus, and seems somewhat less likely to embrace a strategy in East Asia that will lead to a second cold war.
For the peoples of the Middle East and elsewhere, the foreign policy implications of the elections assume greater importance. As with China, Trump seems more inclined than Biden to push the anti-Iran coalition of Israel, UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia toward the brink of war, with the hope that the persistence of 'maximum pressure' will cause destabilization in Iran, and if possible, regime change. Biden would not likely change very much in terms of alignment, but might be expected to be more cautious in endorsing aggressive policies, and might even restore the agreement on Iran's Nuclear Program negotiated toward the end of the Obama presidency. At the same time, Biden might be more inclined than Trump to push an anti-Russian approach that could take the form of regional and global confrontations, as well as arms races in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe.
One cost of such foreign policy initiatives is to weaken the attention given to challenges that can only be solved by multilateral cooperation at a time when it is most needed, especially in relation to climate change, the control of nuclear weaponry, migration flows, and health issues. As noted above, Biden is much more likely to renew American support for 'liberal internationalism' than Trump, and can almost certainly be expected to do so unless geopolitically distracted.
There are other hot spots around the world that are capable of generating dangerous foreign policy crises, especially in relation to Korea or India/Pakistan.
2. Which candidate has the best chance of winning? (Trump or Biden)
As of now, it appears that Biden will win the election rather decisively, but in 2016 there existed a comparable clear outlook close to vote, reinforced by public opinion polls. It created a strong impression that Hillary Clinton would win easily over Donald Trump, a view almost universally shared by the media, and reportedly even by the Trump campaign. The American political mood is unstable, and could be influenced by developments in the coming weeks as the date of the election approaches that are supportive of Trump's campaign for reelection as, for example, violent riots in American cities, a further surge in the financial markets, a crisis in the Middle East or the Korean Peninsula. .
Additionally, there are a series of factors that sow doubt about present expectations of a Biden victory that go beyond which candidate will gain the most votess: first of all, Biden could win the popular vote by a wide margin, and yet lose the election because of the way in which the peculiar American institution of the Electoral College determines the outcome of presidential elections by counting the results on a federal state by state basis rather than nationally. This happened in 2016, Hillary Clinton winning by wide margins in New York and California, but losing close votes in such battleground states as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan. According to the Electoral College a candidate receives the same number of electoral votes assigned to a state if he wins by one vote or 10 million votes. The value of the vote in states where one party dominates, an individual vote becomes of diluted value, whereas if both parties are more or less of similar popularity, the value of an individual vote is inflated. The question posed is whether the Electoral College vote will again override the popular vote as it did in 2106.
Secondly, it is well known that Republican control of governments in the 50 states making up the U.S. has resulted in a variety of voter suppression schemes that make it harder to vote, and particularly affects African Americans and the very poor, making voting more difficult i cities and the rural South. Trump has also attacked mail-in voting as subject to mass fraud although the evidence in no way supports the accusation. Less votes are seen as helping Trump. Republicans are better organized and more disciplined than Democrats, although the Democrats have devoted great energy this year to getting out the vote.
Thirdly, Trump has intimated that he can only lose the election if it is has been 'rigged' by the Democrats. The reality seems to justify a different complaint that targets the Republicans. Much of the rigging that occurred in 2016 was attributable to Russia, and definitely worked in Trump's favor, being intended to do so. Back then such partisan interference seemed welcomed by the Republican campaign, and likely would be again. There are concerns that similar interferences might occur again this time around as Russia continues to prefer Trump to Biden, although there seems to be a greater effort in 2020 to insulate the election process from outside interferences, especially in relation to social media.
It is important to grasp a basic ideological feature of recent American elections of the presidency. Ever since the unified response to fascism during World War II the political parties have accepted a 'bipartisan consensus' that almost completely excludes certain crucial policy commitments from political controversy. The most important of these is overinvestment in the military, the predatory features of global capitalism, and so-called 'special relationships' with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and European alliance partners. This consensus held up throughout the Cold War, was sustained during the banner years of neoliberal globalization in the decade of the 1990s, and reinvigorated after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon after George W. Bush launched the war on terror, and Barack Obama continued it.
Bernie Sanders challenged this consensus as it impacted upon policy discourse during his two campaigns to obtain the Democratic Party nomination, but his efforts were rejected by the party elite because he threatened the consensus, defied the 'deep state,' worried the Washington foreign policy establishment, and frightened the large private sector donors whose funding support depended on respecting the bipartisan consensus. In this sense, the Democrats successfully subordinated in their own party all radical elements that enjoyed movement support, especially among youth. The Republicans sidelined their moderate leadership, giving over control of the party to extremists that formed the base of Trump support. And so while the Democratic Party establishment neutralized the progressive Sanders' challenge the Republican Party was radicalized from the right giving Trump control over all mechanism.
In part, it is this issue of party identity, and its relation to the governmental structures of power, that may be the most important effect of the November elections. If Biden wins, the bipartisan consensus is reaffirmed, while if Trump somehow prevails, the bipartisan will be further weakened, and even threatened by replacing the consensus with a right-wing policy agenda. If Biden loses, the consensus will be further discredited by its mistaken view that moving toward the political center is what wins election. What evidence exists by polls and other measurements of public opinion suggest that Sanders would have been a stronger candidate than Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, but for reasons suggested above, adhering to the bipartisan consensus was more important or Democrats than winning elections.
Tags: Biden, Electoral College, fascism, Policy Agendas, Trump
Anticipating the Trump Presidency
[Prefatory Note: The post below was commissioned by the global-e journal ( http://www.21global.ucsb.edu/global-e ) and appears there as Volume 9, No. 3, November 2016.]
In the weeks prior to the American presidential election I received a large number of independent messages from progressive friends abroad who were either expats or citizens of other countries. I was not too surprised that almost every message expressed hostility to Hillary Clinton, but I was shocked that so many were opting for Trump to win the election or advocating a stay-at-home boycott or third party vote believing that neither Trump nor Clinton deserved support, and there was no basis for making one preferable to the other. I shared some of these sentiments, but overcame my doubts about the better option as the campaign wore on, becoming increasingly definite about supporting Clinton, initially as the lesser of evils and later more affirmatively, as she had become a woman unduly victimized by the nasty virulence of Trump's hurtful misogynist slurs. I increasingly felt that my overseas friends were out of touch with the internal dynamics of American society, specifically, not appreciating that Trump's election, in view of his campaign, would be a dark day of foreboding, hurt, rejection, and despair for African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, women, and supporters of progressive causes.
The views of my pro-Trump foreign friends have over the years been consistently humane and congenial. Their various reasons for being anti-Clinton or pro-Trump resulted from adopting predominantly structural outlooks or reflect preoccupations with specific substantive concerns. The structural arguments were two-fold: first, that both political parties in the US were equally subservient to the logic of neoliberal globalization ('the Washington consensus') that they believed was the source of many of the worst evils in the world, making Trump seem almost like a third party candidate who was challenging the core elements of economic globalization. For them, the only moral response was either to boycott the election altogether, as it made no difference which side won; or alternatively, take a chance with Trump, as he at least seemed likely to repudiate NAFTA and kill the TPP.
A second structural argument, often overlapping with the first, was that the military industrial corporate complex was embraced by the mainstream of both parties, making American global militarism bipartisan. Such a view was reinforced by the degree to which the Washington national security establishment and neocon think tanks overwhelmingly stepped forward to support Clinton, including many prominent Republicans, fearing that Trump would choose a security path that was adventurously dangerous or, worse, might even pursue an anti-militarist neo-isolationist foreign policy. Trump so threatened the Republican national security establishment that Washington's political elite generally agreed he would make an unreliable and irresponsible leader of the American 'global state.' Trump's repeated calls to rebuild America's allegedly broken military capabilities were almost irrelevant, given his disorienting comments about alliances, nonproliferation, and regime-changing interventions. Although Trump's challenge to political correctness in the security domain was anathema to Washington's political class, it was music to the ears of my foreign friends.
There is a third version of structural analysis, ignored by my friends abroad, that seems helpful in explaining what happened in the American election. It is the extent to which various forms of ultra-nationalist populism are succeeding in electing leaders throughout the world by large margins, including Russia, India, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, Philippines, and now the United States. The Brexit vote in Britain, along with the rise of right wing political parties in Europe, exhibit a similar backlash against globalizing tendencies and foreign interventions that have in turn engendered menacing transnational migrations of desperate people fleeing war torn zones and escaping from extreme poverty. These migrations fuel chauvinism in the West that toxically interacts with economic stagnation, high levels of unemployment, terrorist anxieties, and closely related threats to indigenous ethnic and racial identities. In effect, right wing populism is a response to the failures of Western political, economic, and cultural systems to protect the material and psycho-political wellbeing of their respective national populations.
Over all, my foreign friends were generally opposed to Clinton's global security agenda, especially as it pertained to Russia and the Middle East, and preferred Trump's vague generalities and even regarded his inexperience as an asset. The pro-Trump arguments here concentrated on Clinton's past record of support for regime-changing military interventions in the Middle East and her support for a No Fly Zone in Syria whose establishment would almost certainly result in a confrontation with Russia that could escalate into yet another American-sponsored regime-changing intervention in a Muslim country. Such an intervention was particularly feared as it could easily lead to a new cold war, with hot war dangers. More than a couple of my correspondents quoted her chilling remark in Libya shortly after Qaddafi's capture and grisly execution, "We came, we saw, he died," feeling that it embodied the heartless geopolitics in the Middle East that had produced the current regional turmoil.
Although these perceptions are anecdotal, I find them revealing and disturbing. Because American elections, especially this one, seem so important to people in other countries, the results are watched closely, sometimes more closely than their own national elections. Early reactions to the Trump victory in Mexico and Russia reveal contradictory priorities in various parts of the world. The Mexican reaction has been reported to be one of uniform shock and sorrow, as well as feelings of deep concern for their relatives and friends living in the US or worries that remittances from America for very poor families would now be in jeopardy or heavily taxed. In the streets of Moscow, there was rejoicing, since Russians, whether they liked Putin or not, seemed convinced that Trump would act as a practical business man and work toward cooperative relations that would help both governments diminish the frightening tensions currently associated with NATO, Ukraine, and Syria, and avoid any further downward spiral in relations that they quite reasonably feared would be the trajectory of a more ideological Clinton presidency.
Outside the U.S., many people, whether American or not, tend to view the Trump victory and the Clinton defeat through a single-issue optic that mostly pertains to international economic and security policy. In contrast, those living here in the United States, if drawn to Trump, are likely to be attracted by his anti-establishment outsider outlook combined with their own internal preoccupations with national economic policy, especially jobs and trade, and cultural liberalism (e.g., gays, pro-choice, race, immigration, and recreational drugs). Trump supporters with a more self-consciously conservative bent believe he would keep the Supreme Court appointment process in Republican hands for the next four years. This prospect alone apparently led many wavering suburban Republicans to vote for Trump in the end, disregarding qualms that might otherwise have kept them home on election day.
In his victory speech, Trump sounded gentle and benign, promising to govern for all citizens as a unifying leader, stressing the need to rebuild the decaying American infrastructure and even offering gracious praise to Hilary Clinton for a hard fought campaign. Unfortunately, this cheerful aftermath is bound to be short lived. Major struggles loom, and will begin as soon as Trump announces his appointments of cabinet members and key staff. Not long after some doubtless provocative choices, bitter policy controversies will emerge a he seeks to implement his programmatic priorities: scrapping Obamacare, NAFTA, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Iran nuclear deal. Altogether, this will sadly erase from the books the best parts of the Obama legacy. It is not a pretty picture without even considering whether Trump will follow through on his most notorious pledges: mass deportation of 'illegal' immigrants, imposition of an airtight anti-Muslim immigration ban, and the construction a police friendly 'law and order' regime to combat 'black lives matter' activism and inner city crime.
In this period, American resilience will certainly be tested, probably as much or more than at any time since the American Civil War. The haunting uncertainty is whether the likely incivility of the Trump presidency will decisively darken the political destiny of the country, or only be a transitory period of regression. Can the creative energies of resistance and reform build a transformative movement of sufficient strength to balance the Trump juggernaut? On this slim possibility, somewhat prefigured by the primary campaign of Bernie Sanders, our hopes rest for a resilient and resurrected America again dedicated to achieving peace abroad and justice at home.
There is a final observation that deserves commentary and reflection. It should not be overlooked that Clinton won the popular vote by a comfortable margin (thanks to California) despite her high unfavorability ratings. If not for that peculiar anachronistic American institution—the Electoral College—Clinton would be the winner, Trump the loser, and political gurus would be busy telling us why such an outcome was inevitable. With real world clarity, it is mere cocktail party phantasy to think that American democracy will sometime soon be democratized by counting every person's vote equally. Entrenched Republican Party interests will never let the US Constitution be so modernized, but what this popular vote does confirm is that country is almost evenly divided, and that progressive values continue to enjoy a slight majority. It is therefore wildly premature to think that this election signals that the American people have descended into the swamps of racism and nativism, but it will still take a vigilant opposition movement to prevent Trump's government from imposing its horrendous agenda on our collective future.
Tags: commentary, Donald Trump, Electoral College, Hillary Clinton, reflections
Categories Clinton Defeat, Commentary, Electoral College, Mexico, Popular Vote, Reflections, Russia, Trump Presidency
Obama's Victory, Romney's Defeat
Around the world even more than in the United States there is an audible sigh of relief the day after Obama won a clear mandate for a second term as president. Deconstructed it mainly meant that many more were relieved that Romney lost, rather than excited that Obama won. Yet there were some, with whom I partly agree, whose gaze carries beyond the narrow victory in popular vote (as distinct from the decisive victory in the electoral college vote), to appreciate a positive fundamental change in American demographics. The white majority coalition that Reagan fashioned so skillfully in the 1980s, achieving incredibly regressive societal results, seems to be losing out to the rising proportion of the electorate that is African-American and Latino, reinforced by the political outlook of youth and the liberal outlook of many women when it comes to reproductive rights. Perhaps, as indicative of a changing social climate were the successful referenda on state ballots in Maine, Maryland, and Washington to legalize same sex marriage and separate initiatives calling for legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Only a decade ago putting such measures on the ballot in several battleground states was understood as a brilliant tactical move by Karl Rove to mobilize the Republican base that was passionately dedicated to defeating such liberalizing initiatives, widely regarded by conservatives as signs of societal degeneracy.
What makes the Obama victory surprising is that his four years in the White House had definitely demobilized his base that had been so ardent in 2008, and seemed only lukewarm in 2012. Toward the end of the recent campaign, antagonism to Romney and fears about a Republican victory, partially remobilized this base, which the Obama people effectively used to carry on their so-called 'ground game' that brought out the minority vote in the key states that were expected to decide the election.
In this sense, the 2012 electoral result is bound to provoke some long looks in the mirror by the Republican faithful. Unless some kind of economic collapse occurs in the years ahead, it is hard to imagine that a similar kind of campaign and candidate that was offered to the American people will be any more successful in 2016, and is quite likely to be less so. After all, Romney turned out to be a great fundraiser, especially after he chose arch-conservative Paul Ryan to stand by his side, and an energetic performer on the campaign trail and a surprisingly good debater. Of course, Romney was unexpectedly assisted by a shift of momentum in his favor after the first presidential debate, a result greatly facilitated by the uncharacteristic gross under-performance by Barack Obama.
What makes the Obama victory more impressive is the degree to which his first term was so disappointing to many of us who had hoped for something more. The escalation in Afghanistan was a costly failure, and the refusal to acknowledge this outcome means that the policy community will remain unencumbered by its past experience of counter-insurgency defeat. The Pentagon will be ready to go forward with yet another military intervention in a non-Western country when so instructed by civilian enthusiasts for hard power diplomacy. Worse than this persisting disposition toward military solutions for international conflicts is the expansion of drone warfare under Obama's watch. Drone attacks are a chilling reminder that state terrorism remains an officially endorsed feature of American foreign policy, including the claim to kill American citizens wherever they may be on the planet without even the pretense of an indictment and due process. Drones let loose a new menacing technology that kills without accountability, and has been the ability to disregard the territorial sovereignty of states as well as to ignore the innocence of those who are made to live under the threat of such weaponry.
On the home front, there is little to applaud in the Obama presidency to day, and quite a bit to lament. There was no attempt to explore whether crimes had been committed during the Bush presidency despite the promise to govern with a scrupulous respect for the rule of law. The treatment of the Wikileaks disclosures, and especially the abuse of the young soldier, Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking the documents, sends a chilling signal in relation to conscience and criminality. The U.S. Government crimes disclosed in the documents, pertaining to actions during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were totally overlooked while the entire focus of governmental concern was placed on the breach of secrecy. When state secrets are guarded so zealously and crimes against humanity are granted impunity, it is a sure sign that the republic is not morally flourishing. It reinforces the impression that America is still reeling from the combination of trauma and belligerency brought about by the 9/11 attacks. There is no reason to suppose that Obama will take steps to vindicate retroactively in his second term the premature award in 2009 of a Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, among the more disturbing sentiments expressed in his victory speech was to twice boast about the United States having the most dominant military force ever possessed throughout the whole of human history. In Obama's extravagant words, "We want to pass on a country that's safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this world has ever known." It is seems almost unnecessary to point out that the wishes expressed in the first part of the sentence are perceived to be directly contradicted by the militarist claim in the second part.
Perhaps, we can hope for something slightly better when it comes to the economy. Obama could have been far worse, and he not only inherited a mess from the Bush era, but was faced with a Republican controlled House of Representatives that was consistently obstructionist, and did little to conceal its priority of making the Obama leadership fail. His programs of stimulus and bailouts did probably prevent a slide into a deep national depression. It remains disturbing, however, that he relied exclusively on economists friendly to Wall Street throughout the process, avoiding any reliance even on such moderate critics as Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, and Joseph Stiglitz. Nevertheless, there were some moves by the Obama administration to put a lid on the most irresponsible practices of the financial world that had generated the mortgage/foreclosure fiasco in the real estate market and its related crises affecting the leading brokerage and banking outfits.
Romney was reported to have told a private fundraising gathering that the Israel/Palestine problem was not going to be resolved in the near future, and that this was okay. Obama seems to have avoided any commentary, although it became well known that Israel was the only country in the world, including it turned out, the United States, in which Romney would have been the electoral choice of the citizenry. In the United States, Jewish support for Obama declined somewhat, but was still maintained a robust 70% level. We can expect two kinds of tests in the months ahead as to whether Obama's approach to the conflict will change:
–diplomacy toward Iran's nuclear program, especially with respect to the threat of an attack launched by Israel;
–degree of Washington's opposition to the effort by the Palestinian Authority to obtain an upgraded non-member observer status at the United Nations.
Another inexcusable failure of the Obama presidency and the presidential campaign was the widely noticed silence on the challenge of climate change. It might as time passes be noted as the clearest signal that democratic politics, deformed by special interests dispersing bundles of cash, could succeed in keeping issues vital to the wellbeing of the citizenry completely off the agenda. Such a result was aided and abetted by the media that never called attention to the concern despite record-setting heat in the summer of 2012. Fortunately, for Obama, Hurricane Sandy managed what none of the media pundits dared, forcing the recognition that extreme
events could no longer be explained away by reference to natural weather cycles. And it was notable that finally in his victory speech Obama made a fleeting reference to doing something about halting the warming trends that so dangerously imperils human health, food security, and overall wellbeing. ["We want our children to live in an America..that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet."] We must watch carefully to see whether this revived concern about climate change translates into high profile national policy, including global leadership, which has been entirely absent during Obama's time as president, despite his original recognition as a candidate in 2008 of what an important challenge climate change posed for the future welfare of the country.
There are two basic interpretations of the Obama victory among those who were hostile to Romney's candidacy:
–the dominant view is that Obama offers the American people and the world a set of expectations that were decidedly preferable to what Romney and the Republicans were offering: more people-oriented; fairer taxation, government regulation of business, and stronger commitments to a government safety net for health, housing, poverty, and education; better appointments to the courts and to government, with greater representation for women and minorities; a more positive approach to the United Nations and foreign policy; and somewhat more forthcoming on environmental issues, including climate change.
–the minority view that when it comes to plutocracy, militarism, and the general structures of global capitalism there is no significant difference between the two parties, and that the election is in this deeper sense, irrelevant. Those adhering to such an outlook were inclined to support the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, who articulated a genuinely progressive agenda that refused to be swayed by liberal appeals to the differences between Republicans and Democrats. The mainstream media completely ignored the existence of the Green Party perspective, which revealingly contrasted with the great attention accorded the Tea Party from its first irreverent stirrings.
I felt drawn to both of these somewhat inconsistent interpretations, and because I was living in California, which was deemed super-safe for Obama, I felt that I could vote structurally, that is, for the Green Party, rather than tactically, that is, for Obama. When it came to secondary candidates and state and local issues, I cast my votes in a pattern that was the same as that of my liberal democratic friends. Of course, the question that I find more difficult to answer is whether if I had lived in Florida or Ohio, I would have risked the structural choice. There is the memory that George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in the 2000 election because 90,000 votes were cast on behalf of a Third Party candidate, Ralph Nader. The question comes down to this: is it more important to show symbolic support for a party and candidate that diagnoses the issues in a sufficiently radical manner to offer some promise of a transformative agenda, or is it better to go with the lesser of evils?
I admit that in the excitement occasioned by the Obama victory last night I was prepared to admit to myself that somehow Obama and the constituencies that supported him could be harbingers of a better future for the country. This sentiment was shared, in reverse, by the pro-business community, which registered their displeasure with the electoral outcome by a major stock market selloff that drove the Dow Jones index down by more than 312 points.
There was something I found inspiring and hopeful about the ethnic and racial diversity of the Obama inner core waiting in Chicago for his victory speech as compared to the stiff and formal whiteness of the Romney crowd despondently gathered in Boston for their leader's concession speech. At this point, my hopeful side is ready for Obama's new mandate to outdo my modest expectations, just as in 2008 he disappointed me beyond my apprehensions. Among Obama supporters there is the belief that in this second term he will take risks in an effort to elevate his presidency to the ranks of greatness.
Regardless of whether Obama pleases more than he disappoints, sending the Republicans to the sidelines is something to cheer about! And beyond this, the Green Party effort did remind me and a few others that a progressive alternative to predatory capitalism can be put forward in a coherent and compelling manner by a candidate with talent and impeccable credentials. Perhaps, we can look forward to a period when Jill Stein does for the Obama presidency what Norman Thomas, and the Socialist Party, did for the New Deal presidency of FDR, that is, be both a thorn in the side, and an inducement to stop the bleeding of disaffected party members by adopting important parts of the Socialist agenda.
Tags: Barack Obama, Electoral College, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, Romney, United States
Categories Commentary, Reflections

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
set -e

google-chrome --version
firefox --version

# Here's a hack for fixing the problem with Chrome not starting in time
# See https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/docker-selenium/issues/87#issuecomment-250475864

sudo rm -f /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
sudo mkdir -p /var/run/dbus
sudo service dbus restart > /dev/null
service dbus status > /dev/null
export $(dbus-launch)
export NSS_USE_SHARED_DB=ENABLED

# Start adb server and list connected devices
if [ -n "$START_ADB_SERVER" ] ; then
  sudo adb start-server
  sudo adb devices
fi

# Inspired by docker-selenium way of shutting down
function shutdown {
  kill -s SIGTERM $PID
  wait $PID
}

MAX_OLD_SPACE_SIZE="${MAX_OLD_SPACE_SIZE:-2048}"

exec node --max-old-space-size=$MAX_OLD_SPACE_SIZE /usr/src/app/bin/sitespeed.js "$@" &

PID=$!

trap shutdown SIGTERM SIGINT
wait $PID


Happy Chinese New Years to everyone. It is my year since I was born in the Year of the Dog too. Here are some pics of Grace over the Holiday for your viewing pleasure.
Looks like you are training Grace to take good care of her man 🙂 She is just adorable.


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ChessPub Forum › Chess Publishing Openings › d-Pawn Specials › What to play against the benoni?
(Moderators: CraigEvans, Bibs)
What to play against the benoni? (Read 12979 times)
ReneDescartes
Qu'est-ce donc que je
suis? Une chose qui pense.
Re: What to play against the benoni?
Happy Christmas and New Year to you too, Jupp, and happy holidays to all my Chesspub friends!
« Last Edit: 12/24/19 at 22:45:40 by ReneDescartes »
Jupp53
Location: Frankfurt/Main
Thank you ReneDescartes.
All the usual wishes till the start of the next year to everybody here!
Medical textbooks say I should be dead since April 2002.
Dum spiro spero.
It's true that I considered 6.c3 only after 5.Bb2 (mistakenly adding dots as if they were Black moves, by the way). With 5.c3, White does gain the possibility of taking the e-pawn by chasing the Black Nc6 away with b5.
1.d4 c5 2.b4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.a3 Nc6 5.c3 d5. If White tries it, though, he will regret it: 6.b5?! Na5 7.Nxe5 dxc3 and 8.Qa4 (8.b6 is similar: Nc6 9.Qa4+ Bd7 10.Nxd7 axb6! and 11..bxc6), Bc5 9.b6+ Nc6 10.Nxc6 Qd7! with a typical pin motif, gaining time to retain the gambit pawn (11.Nxc3 bxc6 and ...Bxb6).
White really must use a somewhat insipid queen check from a4 in this line, otherwise Black develops a huge initiative--one way is with ...d4 and Be6, sometimes in conjunction with ...Rc8. For example, 8.Nxc3? d4 and Black must grovel with 9.Nb1 (not 9.Na4?? Be6 threatening both Bb3, forking queen and knight, and Nb3 followed by ...Qa5+, forking king and knight; nor 9.Ne4?? Qd5 forking the knights). Or 8.Bf4? g5 (planning ...Bg7) 9. Bg3 d4 10.e3 Be6 11.exd4 Rc8 -+.
Instead of trying to win the e-pawn by kicking the Nc6, just 6 cxd4 is a better try for White; I would consider this the main line. But Black retains a big advantage with 6...e4!, giving back the pawn for a superior reversed-French center. In the real French, the French side has exceptional piece coordination, but here the opposite is the case. After 7.Ne5, Black keeps more central piece control with normal development: simply 7...Bd6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.e3 (or 9.Nc3 Ne7), when Black can choose between 9...Ne7 heading for f5 and 9...Qg5 (in typical anti-French fashion), keeps the upper hand.
Perhaps even stronger after 7.Ne5 in the above line is the immediate minority attack 7...a5, but there's no need to mess with it; it's much more complicated and White has three or four equally good (bad) continuations.
All these lines issue in a rather large opening advantage for Black.
The variation 1.d4 c5 2.b4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.a3 Nc6 5.c3 is not in your reply #29, that I can see, although Jupp53 in reply #38 has 5.c3 as if you gave this move.
I'm confused. What is the exact line ending in 5.c3 that I didn't consider?
.com!
Location: Newark
Diemer made many contributions to chess. There is the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, 1 d4 d5 2 e4 dxe4 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 f3; the Alapin-Diemer Gambit, 1 d4 e6 2 e4 d5 3 Be3 dxe4 4 Nd2 Nf6 5 f3; and the Diemer-Duhm, 1 d4 d5 2 e4 e6 3 c4.
Diemer also played the Herrstrom Gambit 1 Nf3 g5.
Fischer's politics left much to be desired, but he was a world-class player. Same thing with Diemer. His politics left much to be desired, but his chess play was very interesting.
Now I see your point. Thank you.
The lines after 5.c3 are indeed interesting for white against an unprepared patzer like I am. So the next step in the discussion should be finding a clear line for black provoking white to compromise his position further and white lines leaving it unclear.
Jupp53 wrote on 10/02/19 at 00:25:22:
Why now 3... Nc6 if 3... e5 is possible and imo the move of choice?
Simply to help locate the relevant game in the mass of stuff that Gambit posted in #25. He did give 3...e5 at B1, but after 4.a3 black played 4...d6. 3...Nc6 4.a3 e5 was at B4.
There are many lines from Gambit not directly addressed. Why should some care for most of the games he cited if interested in theoretical value of this stuff?
I don't care for most of the games, but I do care for the game which intersects with ReneDescartes's analysis. It's not fair to ignore something already posted if it is relevant, even if it is obscured by a mass of irrelevant stuff.
an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 10/01/19 at 03:02:19:
Well, via 1.d4 c5 2.Nf3 cxd4 3.b4 Nc6 4.a3 e5
Why now 3... Nc6 if 3... e5 is possible and imo the move of choice? There are many lines from Gambit not directly addressed. Why should some care for most of the games he cited if interested in theoretical value of this stuff?
What ReneDescartes has written seems sufficient for black:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
1.d4 c5 2.b4 cxd4 3.Nf3 e5 4.a3
( 4.Nxe5 Bxb4+ 5.c3
( 5.Nd2 $2 Nf6 6.Rb1
( 6.Bb2 Ne4 7.Nf3 Qf6 8.Bxd4 Nxd2 )
6...Ba5 )
5...dxc3 6.Qb3 Qe7 7.a3 Bc5 8.Nd3 d6 9.Nxc3 Nf6 )
4...Nc6 5.c3
( 5.Bb2 d5 )
( 5.e3 dxe3 6.fxe3 d5 )
Anyone disagreeing?
Well, via 1.d4 c5 2.Nf3 cxd4 3.b4 Nc6 4.a3 e5, Gambit gave a game Zilbermints - Diamond, 1996, with 5.c3! (his exclam) that ReneDescartes did not directly address.
Diamond played 5...Nf6.
I guess ReneDescartes wanted to play 5...dxc3 but then 6.Nxc3 and there is a hole on d5. So white gets something for the pawn, precisely how much compensation is of course open to debate.
One curious possibility is 5...a6!? tit for tat 6.cxd4 e4 7.Ne5 (7.d5 Nxb4 8.Ng5 Qf6) 7...Ne7 with a tense position.
Diemer's political views leave much to be desired. That being said, his chess was rather interesting and adventuresome. Same with Fischer, whose political views were radical and anti-Semitic. However, Fischer's chess games are still studied.
All this being said, how about you get away from the computer? Sit at the chessboard and try the Zilbermints Benoni in an over-the-board match. The move order can be 1 d4 c5 2 Nf3 cxd4 3 b4 or more frequently, 1 Nf3 c5 2 d4 cxd4 3 b4. See what happens.
Gambit wrote on 11/27/18 at 20:08:25:
Bibs,
These days, even masters play the Grob. You are welcome to check ChessBase for games. There you will see games where 2200 - 2400 level players play.
As for the Tamarkin Counter-Gambit, I have already posted games earlier.
Well (going by your severly faulty logic) why doesn't everybody play 1.e4 e5 2. Qh5 in regular games (there is actually a thread about it here)?
SWJediknight
Alert... opponent out
of book!
You'd be surprised how effective the Grob can be at club level for mainly psychological reasons. I've faced it several times with Black and have had a significant minus score, often as a result of getting complacent because "we all know it isn't really that good". My opponents tended to deviate from established lines with 2.e3 or 2.h3, not letting me get into lines such as 1.g4 e5 2.Bg2 h5, or 1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 Bxg4 3.c4 dxc4 4.Bxb7 Nd7 5.Bxa8 Qxa8. Some players develop normally but make the mistake of castling kingside too early and presenting White with a ready-made kingside pawn storm. 1.d4 c5 2.b4 could have the same psychological effect, though if White wants to meet 1.d4 c5 with a gambit, 2.e4 is a rather sounder way of doing so - Stockfish 9 assesses this transposition into the Morra as one of White's five best moves in the position, though not as good as 2.d5.
Stockfish 9 also offers 3...d5 as a good alternative against 1.d4 c5 2.b4 cxd4 3.Nf3, so I took a closer look at this line. One idea is that 4.Nxd4?! can be met by 4...e5 with a strong central pawn roller. White did win against it in the Zilbermints Benoni tournament with 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qb2 in Blankenberg-Sardi, when 5...a6 6.e3 e5 7.Nxe5 Bxb4+ 8.Bd2 Bxd2+ 9.Nxd2 gave White a decent game, but there is no need to voluntarily trade the e-pawn for the white b-pawn. Black has the edge after 5...e6 or 5...Nf6.
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PEORIA – Illinois State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith, Ph.D., today announced the 10 school districts selected to participate in the first cohort of Illinois' Competency-Based High School Graduation Requirements Pilot Program. Smith celebrated the pioneering districts at an event at Manual Academy in Peoria Public Schools District 150, which will launch its first competency-based course in the 2018-19 school year.
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Huatulco is a side of Mexico that hasn't quite become a staple in the mainstream – yet. This is a great time to fully explore this beautiful area of Mexico. Visit La Crucecita, a colourfully painted church in the middle of town and take a trip to a local specialty shop with delicacies, including the local Mezcal, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant – a close cousin of Tequila.
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2018 will be the third year that Team Café Roubaix (the bicycle club associated with the Cochrane based bike shop) will be taking part in the Ride Don't Hide bike ride.
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Member Spotlight: A Pilot's View of the Yuba Watershed
December 6, 2013 November 4, 2022 November 4, 2022
Joe Bell, Caleb Dardick, Roger Hicks and Jim Moore in front of Jim's plane used for the flight over the Yuba River watershed
Written by Joe Bell, SYRCL member since the beginning of SYRCL
It was about 25 years ago that former Executive Director of SYRCL Mary Haughey contacted pilot Jim Moore to ask for a donation to the SYRCL auction. Jim, a now-retired American Airlines pilot, said yes that year and most every year since then. His "Soar above the Sierra" auction item has attracted a variety of interested bidders over the years, bringing substantial donations to SYRCL. Strangely, however, Jim has remained a mostly unknown and silent supporter of SYRCL for decades and from high in the clouds. This time, the soaring was to be shared by me, SYRCL founder Roger Hicks and our current executive director, Caleb Dardick, all of us eager to see the watershed from above.
After a lot of schedule messaging, we met Jim (aka "captainheavyjet") at his home near the Nevada County airpark on November 24, a sunny Sunday. We had made a plan to fly the Yuba River canyons to the headwaters and then west to the Yuba wetlands and confluence with the Sacramento River. After a quick circle over Grass Valley, we skipped up to Quincy for lunch and getting to know each other. We then spent most of the afternoon flying above our watershed seeing what it looks like to pilots and birds. In a word, it's amazing.
Sierra Buttes tower in the foreground (photo by Joe Bell)
Turns out, Jim is not only a very experienced pilot; he is also a kayaker, rafter and mountain cyclist with a long list of excursions around our area and all over the world. As he was able to regale us with his explorations, Caleb was able to describe aspects of the Yuba and its many projects while Roger shared stories of kayaking and rafting. I added bits and pieces of the last three decades of legal and political events related to our beloved waterways. We all learned a lot that day.
"The experience of seeing places on the river that I have known for years from the ground was fantastic. It helped me understand the watershed geography in a more comprehensive way, with a new perspective and a better sense of distance," Roger said afterwards.
Later, I interviewed Jim to profile one of SYRCL's most interesting and dedicated supporters. This is what he had to say:
Jim decided to become a pilot at age 16, when his family was living in Apple Valley, Southern California, not far from George Air Force Base in Palmdale. "At the time," he says "I was working pumping gas for both cars and planes at a station near an airport runway."
His grandmother had been interested in science, and she told him about the USSR's Sputnik satellite, a wonder of 1957, when he was just a kid with an urge to fly. He began flying lessons in 1964 at age 16. He says, "I nearly got airsick at first, but I really wanted to do it." He began by "dual flying" with an instructor, paying $6 for the lesson plus $12 for the plane and gas — a bargain at $18 per hour. His teacher, who made a big impression on him, eventually flew around South America with Phillipe Costeau. Meanwhile, Jim was pumping gas, making $1.25 per hour working 8 hours a day and spending most of what he made, flying as much as he could.
Highway 49 Crossing (photo by Joe Bell)
At that time, recreational and sport flying licenses did not exist. Young kids could solo at 16 and get a private license at age 17. To get a license you had to have 40 hours of flight time, with certain amounts of instrument time, and pass written as well as practical tests. To get a commercial license to fly others for money, you had to be 18, with 200 hours flying time and pass another test, which Jim did at age 18. At that point he could earn money by flying people and eventually charge for flying lessons. Interestingly, Jim's dad followed in son's footsteps, also becoming a pilot at about the same time Jim did. His father flew recreationally and they flew together on adventure trips.
After graduating from Victorville High School, he tried out several colleges, finally graduating from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, in 1971. When he was 22, he completed the requirements and passed the test to get an "ATR" [airline transport rating, now called ATP (pilot)]. However, he was a year too young to actually get the ATR. Jim says "At that point, I had flown about 2500 hours, a rarity for someone my age. I began teaching others to fly at age 18." He was obviously very precocious.
At CalPoly, Jim had signed up to teach ROTC students to fly in a ground school program for guys going to Viet Nam to fly helicopters. Next, he joined the Air National Guard, looking ahead and planning to become an airline pilot, and the draft was a present possibility. Seeing that, he decided that the ANG was a better alternative, with a shorter commitment and good further training. He says "I was selected to go to pilot training at a point when I already had 4000 hours flying time. After fulfilling my commitment, I turned down remaining enlisted. I was hired by American Airlines in 1973 when I was just 24 years old, with 4700 hours in the cockpit. It was so unusual to have so many hours flying, AA did not believe me."
Bridgeport Covered Bridge (photo by Joe Bell)
That is, they did not believe it till Jim showed them he had already been flying for Swifts Aire Lines, a commuter carrier, when he was in college at SLO. He had even towed gliders. At Swift, he flew the DeHaviland Herron – a 4 engine plane, for about two years, which, he says "was good training, and the plane had no autopilot, making the training more demanding. We flew with marginal equipment day in and day out, with little regard for the weather conditions up and down the California coast and inland to Bakersfield and Fresno. I flew the routes to San Francisco and San Jose. There was little FAA oversight and we did whatever it took to get the job done." After being hired, Jim flew for 37 years with American, in the driver's seat for the Boeing 707, 727, 767 and 777 as well as the DC9, DC 10, Super 80 and MD11 Douglas planes.
Jim moved from Laguna Niguel to Alta Sierra in 1984, after becoming tired of the city crowds. He bought a Cessna 180 and lived with his wife, Carolyn, and his plane near the airport along Norlene Way. From there, he would fly to SFO to serve as a First Officer on the 767 airliner. In 2006 Jim built his current home next to the Airpark.
His devotion to rivers and river sports began at age 30 while he was rafting on the Green River, in Wyoming. He also rafted in Utah and was taught by a guide how to run river in small boat. At the time he moved to Nevada County, Jim was very aware of the Yuba River and he hiked it frequently. He also did mountain biking on the South Yuba Round Mountain trail. He has been kayaking and rafting for the past 25 years, including the Klamath, South Fork of the American, the Tuolumne, the East Fork of Carson River, and rivers in Chile and elsewhere in the Western USA and Alaska.
Englebright Dam (photo by Joe Bell)
When Mary Haughey contacted Jim, he joined SYRCL immediately and made his first donation to support its efforts to protect the river. He has been flying for SYRCL ever since, some years donating two flights, but he has only been present at the auction once to see the bidding on his gift flights. He recalls that "some of the trips were in turbulent conditions, but there has never been any big problem on the flights, which really are the only way to see much of the Yuba wateshed."
Jim Moore is still showing his gratitude and love of our watershed and support for the work of SYRCL protecting our rivers. He says that "there is a lot of economic activity involved in developing rivers, but when a river goes that way, a lot is lost." When he was just 15, Jim visited Lake Powell before the canyon was fully flooded by the Glen Canyon dam. He recalls the tough decision and tragedy when the Sierra Club was opposing dams on the Grand Canyon, but David Brower traded off opposition to the Glen Canyon (which he had never seen) to preserve Echo Park canyon on the Green River, which would have otherwise been destroyed by a dam there. The story of Echo Park and the dam proposal there still provides inspiration for Jim's own dedication to protection of rivers in his adopted home, and ours.
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