text:
Some workers for Labor Day
These days, the whole of San Francisco feels like a construction job site. No recession here, yet.
Much of this is at superhuman scale.
With increased traffic, overburdened streets need all the help they can get.
In the residential neighborhoods, there's plenty of sprucing up going on.
Many a residential foundation needs replacing which can be a pretty drastic enterprise. This is what I used to do in the 1980s; as I realized while chatting with a new acquaintance recently, homeowners end up with a ton of concrete, perhaps some reassurance about earthquakes, and nothing to show off to their friends.
Better reinforce that roof.
With all this activity, how could Amazon deliveries be far behind?
Meanwhile, some has got to guard the store, lackadaisically.
All photos taken while Walking San Francisco in 2019. Women remain sadly rare in these jobs ...
UPDATE: Here's a woman worker I encountered while walking today:
I'm taking a short break. Blogging will resume after Labor Day.
Labels: labor, San Francisco, work
Whiners for the Lord
Michael Gerson is trying to explain for the umpteenth time just what white evangelical U.S. Christians are so afraid of:
There is a certain type of political progressive who would grant institutional religious liberty only to churches, synagogues and mosques, not to religious schools, religious hospitals and religious charities. Such a cramped view of pluralism amounts to the establishment of secularism, which would undermine the long-standing cooperation of government and religious institutions in tasks such as treating addiction, placing children in adoptive homes, caring for the sick and educating the young.
Yes. Count me in as that sort of progressive.
It's a labor issue. Unless the school, hospital, or charity hires only its own members who chose to give up their individual citizenship to the prescriptions of their religious tribe (their choice!), this creates a labor issue. No, institutions serving diverse communities in diverse communities have no business firing their LGBT employees for getting legally married as too many Catholic schools have been doing.
It's a discrimination issue. Nor can they make up their own standards for who is a qualified potential adoptive parent or a qualified nurse. In a diverse society, that has to be a job for the state, mediating conflicts between tribes.
The white evangelical complaint is simply that they can no longer make the rules without engaging in the pulling and hauling of democracy. And that when they do try to engage in the country we have become, they largely lose, though they can do a lot of harm while declining. See also women denied reproductive health care and Mr. Trump.
Gerson goes on to lament that the religious right drives away its own children (as the chart shows). No wonder.
I can be sad in response to this without feeling any sympathy.
Labels: democracy, patriarchy, racism, religion
The undead just keep on coming
It happened every year. My mother owned some shares of stock in the Phillip Morris corporation; at Christmas, the tobacco company would send her a beautifully wrapped package containing a selection of packs of their cigarette brands -- Winstons, Newports, Marlboros, etc. She was charmed and loyal. Smoking was a habit she'd picked up as a teenager in the 1920s. It branded her as mature and modern -- oh yeah. This was before the 1964 Surgeon's General Report which stated unequivocally that smoking caused cancer and numerous other diseases. By then her generation was hooked, as were many of my generation coming along a little latter. The stroke which eventually killed her certainly had damage from decades of smoking as a contributing cause.
So I can't say I was happy to see versions of this in the business sections of major media:
Philip Morris and Altria Are in Talks to Merge
With Altria's investment in Juul, a combination of the tobacco giants would dominate the international market for e-cigarettes. The tobacco giants Philip Morris International and the Altria Group are in talks to reunite, the companies said on Tuesday, in a deal that would combine the most popular brands of both traditional and electronic cigarettes.
... The number of cigarettes sold in the United States fell 3.5 percent in 2017 from the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The e-cigarette market was worth about $11 billion in 2018, and it is projected to surpass $18 billion by 2024, according to a report from Mordor Intelligence, a market research firm.
... "This is very dangerous for public health," said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "There's a real concern that a strengthened Philip Morris poses an increased threat to tobacco control measures both in the United States and around the globe."
The zombies just keep on coming. ...Meanwhile in San Francisco, the zombies are fighting for their lives and their business plan to hook yet more generations.
Juul Spending Money Like A Drunken Sailor To Overturn E-Cigarette Ban
It's terrible timing for the electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul that lung illnesses believed to be related to e-cigarette use have just been reported in 14 states. These 94 cases of still-unsolved lung illness tied to vaping come less than three months before San Francisco votes on Prop. C, a November ballot measure meant to undo the San Francisco vapor product sales ban, and sponsored by the vape company Juul.
But Juul has an important weapon to sway voters — a whole lot of dollars.
Juul has spent more than $4.5 million on their measure to defeat the vaping ban according to campaign filings at the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
Juul is promoting its drug delivery system through the misleadingly named "Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation." They claim, falsely, that Measure C would protect people under 18 from their addiction machine. Expect to drown in lying direct mail, ads, and door hangers until November. No on C.
Labels: 2019 elections, capitalism, health, San Francisco
Maybe I missed something, but alongside the news of the fires in the Brazilian Amazon rain forest decimating that unparalleled marvel (and carbon sink), there's been a lot less about this. Central Africa is burning also.
Weather Source has recorded 6,902 fires in Angola over the past 48 hours, compared to 3,395 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 2,127 in Brazil. It's not an uncommon phenomenon for Central Africa.
Maybe the relative omission is because western media (understandably) have it in for Brazil's autocratic president, Jair Bolsonaro. Or maybe we just don't give much of a damn about what happens in the Congo Basin.
Labels: climate, media
Remembering our own
The outline of a new mural is coming into view on the Calle24 Latino Cultural District building at 24th Street and Capp.
Guatemalan migrant worker Amilcar Perez Lopez (left image) was shot by the police with six bullets to the back on February 26, 2015 just two blocks away. At right, the mural includes lights for Alex Nieto and Mario Woods, two other local victims of trigger happy cops. No police officers were ever charged for their killings, nor for the shooting of homeless Mission resident Luis Gongoro Pat also pictured on the mural.
Soon their images and their stories will cover the side of the building in the center of the Mission, less than a block from BART. The Mission remembers thanks to the Justice4Amilcar Coalition with Fr. Richard Smith, HOMEY, Mission Housing Development Corporation, and Calle24. The mural team is led by Carla Elena Wojczuk.
There's a GoFundMe raising money to support the mural.
Labels: guns, police, rule of law, SF Mission
A "moderate" is swayed
Last month I highlighted Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood as a stunning political talent, albeit a "moderate." In 2018, she flipped an 85% white, longtime Republican, district in the western suburbs of Chicago. Republicans think her one of their easiest targets to defeat in 2020.
But she insisted that she sticks to the bread and butter issues about which she hears from her constituents -- health care access and costs, college costs, ... In her telling no one asks about "the Russia thing." Probably true.
But something has changed. Now she has read the Mueller report. She has joined her Democratic colleagues in deciding it is time to look into impeachment:
No person in America is above the law, including the President of the United States. My statement on an impeachment inquiry below. pic.twitter.com/Hmm5cxPQQd
— Rep. Lauren Underwood (@RepUnderwood) August 20, 2019
I find this telling, though of just what I don't know. I would not have expected the down-to-earth Underwood to stick her head up. Whether impeachment is a strategic political move -- or timely -- is beyond my pay grade. (Obviously Trump is a walking high crime, but that's not the issue.) But if this Congresswoman is moving, something is stirring.
UPDATE: Via Daily Kos Elections:
• IL-14: Catalina Lauf, who worked in the Trump administration's Commerce Department, announced Tuesday that she would seek the GOP nod to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood. Lauf, who is 26 and whose mother emigrated from Guatemala, portrayed herself as the conservative answer to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I'd bet on Underwood.
Labels: Democrats, rule of law
Can democracy cure itself?
Since November 2016, I've read quite a few books that explore various interpretations of what the Trump election (and the Brexit vote in June 2016) might mean. Has our underlying tribal white racism overrun our politics? (Yes.) Have the gross economic injustices of contemporary capitalism made many people willing to risk burning it all down? (Yes.) Do we have kleptocratic enemies whose own survival depends on undermining the appeal of the democratic ideals we honor even while we also breach them? (Yes.) Are our legal constitutional arrangements outdated and incapable of delivering legitimate government? (Yes.) The list goes on.
Cambridge University luminary David Runciman's The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present - Revised Edition takes a comparative, political science-grounded, stab at the question whether democracy itself is a sustainable system for organizing a society. First published in 2013, before the Brexit and Trump shocks, Runciman certainly can claim to have seen bumpy times ahead for the system pioneered in the Anglophone world. An afterward looks at democracies' prospects in the light of subsequent events.
This is an alarming book. The writing is wonderfully lucid, jargon-free, something you seldom get from an academic political "scientist." But Runciman's point of view is irritatingly Olympian; if democracy is doomed, he'll describe its demise without betraying much distress.
Runciman grounds his discussion in 19th century musings of French politician Alexis de Tocqueville about the then-novel American democratic system. Tocqueville found the America of the 1840s both attractive and repellent (these lovers of "liberty" owned enslaved people!) -- but concluded it just might have enough inner resilience to survive and even thrive.
The key to making sense of American democracy was to learn not to take it at face value. It worked despite the fact that it looked as though it shouldn't work. Its advantages were hidden somewhere beneath the surface and only emerged over time.
... Faith was the lynchpin of American democracy. The system worked, Tocqueville decided, because people believed in it. They believed in it despite the fact that it looked like it shouldn't work ... You could have genuine faith in it. In that sense, he accepted that American democracy had passed a confidence threshold. His worry was about what lay on the other side. He was afraid that confidence in democracy would prove to be a trap.
The book records cycles of crisis in which democracies repeated a pattern of semi-functional response.
First, democracies are not good at recognizing crisis situations: all the surface noise of democratic politics makes them insensitive to genuine turning points. Second, crises need to get really bad before democracies can show their long-term strengths, but when they get really bad, there is more scope for democracies to make serious mistakes. Third, when democracies survive a crisis, they may not learn from the experience. All crises generate lessons about the mistakes to avoid in future. But democracies are capable of taking a different lesson: that no matter what mistakes they make, they will be all right in the end.
This is the "Confidence Trap" of the title.
In the fashion of academic disciplines which cherry pick examples from history that can yield insights within their frameworks, Runciman offers a catalogue of interesting tidbits.
On the aftermath of World War I:
Democracies tend to overreach themselves when they outlast or defeat autocratic rivals, because they assume the truth about democracy has finally been revealed. It hasn't. What eventually gets revealed instead is the inherent difficulty democracies have in seizing the moment.
On German democracy's failure that ended in Nazi rule and devastating war:
German experiences before and after 1933 confirm how dangerous it is to assume that democracies can improvise a solution to every crisis they face. Improvisation destroyed the Weimar Republic, because it unraveled the authority of the state. But the demise of Weimar was not the whole story. Democracy looked to be in deep trouble almost everywhere in 1933. Yet that impression was ultimately misleading. No one can know for sure when established democracies have finally run out of road. Sometimes, despite the risks, improvisation remains the best bet.
On President John F. Kennedy's choices in the Cuban missile crisis:
[Kennedy faced] the two nonnegotiable requirements of democratic public opinion: first, that he should do everything in his power to avoid a conflict; second, that he should not be seen to back down. Democracies hate unnecessary wars, but they also hate making concessions.
On "winning" the Cold War:
... it was won by democracies that did not know what they were up to. ... Western democracy had not reined itself in. It had not even franchised itself out. It had simply kept going. Its victory relied on its underlying adaptability, not its self-control. Democracy had failed to take charge of its destiny, but it had taken whatever history could throw at it and come through, in ways no rival system could match. It was still standing when everything else had fallen down.
... This is the ongoing dream of democratic fulfillment: to harness the underlying benefits that only appear sporadically at times of crisis and turn them into solid, enduring gains. The problem, though, is that crisis politics does not map onto routine political decision making in a democracy.
On the Great Recession of 2008:
Outright disasters produce new beginnings. Successful firefighting tempts you to keep putting out fires.
These cringe-inducing insights are not comforting in our current predicament. He concludes that, having seen our system muddle through for a century and more, we've been complacent beyond reason.
... The cumulative success of democracy has created the conditions for systemic failure. The time may be past for muddling through.
A vote for Trump was simultaneously an expression of disgust with the system and a declaration of confidence in it. After all, who would entrust power to such a man unless they had some residual faith that they could be protected from the consequences of their choice?
He speculates that the catastrophe of financial collapse in 2008, for which nobody seemed to suffer except most ordinary people, may have wrung out democracy's resilience.
It took a while to work through, but eventually the belief that no one had been punished for the near-calamity—and indeed that those who should have been punished were making more money than ever—needed to find an outlet. ... Improvised solutions kept the show on the road but they also put off the day of reckoning. So two days of reckoning were improvised: 23 June and 8 November 2016. However different the circumstances and consequences of these two votes, they have this in common: they were an opportunity for sufficiently large numbers of people to register that the crisis was not over for them. As a result, they have produced a fresh crisis of their own ...
... Populism will only drag democracy down if it forces mainstream democratic politicians to remain stuck in a defensive mode, frightened of making mistakes for fear they lack the resources to correct them. The history of democracy in the twentieth century shows that it does not have to be that way. Nothing is certain. However, it is hard to escape the suspicion that what kept democracy moving forward through the twentieth century were the galvanizing effects of repeated crises.
... The arrival of Trump in the White House does not represent a reckoning. It is simply another diversion from the underlying challenges of an interconnected, networked and slowly warming world. Once, populism provided a spur to action. Now it is a sign of stasis. That is why I increasingly believe that the story I tell in this book—the story of democratic progress through adaptability—is coming to an end.
All the more reason to look for politicians among the Democratic presidential hopefuls who embrace drive and daring, rather than a return to an illusory "normal." And beyond politicians, all the more reason to look for peoples' movements that strive for justice and compassion, usually initiated and based among people for whom democracy has not (yet?) been a good deal. There are many such out there.
Runciman can ruminate from his elevated perch. Most of us are living in a place and time to get moving, not to agonize.
Labels: booktalk, democracy, history
Saturday scenes: the coons are back in Golden Gate Park
The animal looked a bit like that rock, but I noticed movement as I ran toward him.
He noticed me as I approached.
As I rounded a curve, I saw there were more. Perhaps a family? Perhaps the first raccoon was a sentry?
The galumphing runner signaled time to beat it out of sight.
Some made for cover under the bridge while others knew they could easily outrun me.
I haven't seen this many raccoons in the park for awhile. Some years ago I encountered a group near this same spot on the trail around Chain of Lakes Drive. I later read that Animal Control had captured that batch; apparently they are hell on pet dogs. As far as I'm concerned, I'd say leave them be.
Labels: just 'cuz, running, San Francisco
There are only so many hideaways in a smallish house -- but Morty found a new one. Once he got through posing, he climbed on my lap where he now is trying to create typos by head-butting my hands.
Does it really require closing a mountain peak to monitor storms and rainfall?
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission thinks so. I run on this rocky outcropping -- Montara Mountain which sits between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay -- as often as once a week. It's rugged and often nearly empty of recreational users. But city bureaucrats have decided they have to close the top -- because, well, I guess the decaying communication towers weren't enough unsightly litter. Seriously now, must they close off yet more wild land that is only lighted used?
This is an agency with an imperial attitude about the watersheds it "protects." For decades, it has made the ridgeline fire road west of Crystal Springs Reservoir off limits. Meanwhile San Mateo County has no qualms about its heavily used Sawyer Camp Trail on the east side where a determined polluter could probably toss a stone into the water. But hey, SFPUC closes its side to all but its own employees, some of whom get to live in this lovely wild area. (I went on a legal, supervised hike there once during which the water guys tracked us in a pickup.)
Please sign this petition asking the SFPUC to find other options than closing off the North Peak of the mountain.
Labels: California, running, San Francisco, water
Extending that Republican Rx for sickness: "just die"
If I didn't have some (weak) confidence that the Times does elementary fact checking, I'd find this unbelievable. But it's widely reported.
Charles Blow digs into how deliberate cruelty makes Trump a "folk hero" for many (most?) Republicans.
A Lust for Punishment
... Trump's own punitive spirit aligns with and gives voice and muscle to American conservatives' long simmering punitive lust. And this insatiable desire to inflict pain has particular targets: women (specifically feminists), racial minorities, people who are L.G.B.T.Q. and religious minorities in this country. In short, the punishments are directed at anyone who isn't part of, or supportive of, the white supremacist patriarchy.
... The whole discussion of abortion and those who oppose a woman's right to choose this legal and legitimate medical procedure is in part rooted in punishment. The woman was a reckless custodian of her body and dared to have sex, unprotected, at a time when she wasn't prepared to be a mother or with a man she didn't want to be her child's father. For shame. She should be made to complete the pregnancy, give birth to the child and raise it. This is her punishment for sex.
... In discussions about the disproportionate rates of black male incarceration or black men gunned down by the police, I can't tell you how many times I've read or heard conservatives say that these black males' own actions courted the punishment, that they got what they deserved.
This has ever been the case: the flaying of black flesh as punishment for some infraction, perceived or real, from the lash and hounds of slavery to the lynchings that surged after the Civil War, from state execution when the killing moved indoors to our current extrajudicial killings by the police in which the morbid act moves back outside. ...
Labels: hate, racism, Republicans, Trump time, women
Does this medal remind you of anything?
Soldiers who Trump has sent to guard the Mexican border against the "invasion" lodged in his feral imagination will earn a medal that looks like this.
As Erudite Partner remarked: "Repulsive."
The Armed Forces Service Medal was created by President Bill Clinton in 1996 through an executive order. The award ... was previously given to troops who operated along the border under President George W. Bush. It has also been awarded to troops who have deployed to Bosnia, Haiti and West Africa on humanitarian or peacekeeping missions.
So there is a precedent. Sort of. Trump treats the U.S. Armed Forces like his personal toy soldiers.
U.S. Air Force graphic by Staff Sgt. Alexx Pons
Labels: just 'cuz, militarism, Trump time
The "stop the world, I want to get off" crowd
Since November 2016 when the Trump election was enabled by votes from 81 percent of white evangelical Christians, I've noodled away at understanding what drives these people. The simple explanation -- these are terrified white people grasping at the Making America White Again straw despite its repugnance -- is both irrefutable and yet feels incomplete. John Fea helped me appreciate how terrified these people are in a culture they can't seem to grasp, much less control and constrain. Fear overrides both sense and common decency.
Major media are taking another run at understanding white evangelical Christians. Washington Post writer Elizabeth Bruenig braved the wilds of north Texas from which she sprang last spring during Holy Week, reporting sensitively on the folks she'd left behind. Amid her compassion, there were hints of something chilling. She quotes "Lydia Bean, 38, a researcher who taught at Baylor University":
"Basically, it's like a fortress mentality, where it's like — the best we can do is lock up the gates and just pour boiling oil over the gates at the libs," ..."I really think one of the things that's changed since I did my fieldwork at the very end of the Bush administration is a rejection of politics in general as a means to advance the common good, even in a conservative vein." In that case, politics "becomes a bloodsport, where you're punishing and striking back at people you don't like" without much hope of changing anything. For that kind of "hopeless cynicism" regarding politics — walls up, temporary provisions, with just enough strength and zeal left to periodically foil one's enemies — Trump is an ideal leader.
That is, terror at imagined loss can morph into nihilism. A few can become the El Paso terrorist. Far more simply cheer on Trump from within imagined fortress walls that ratify their purity:
By voting for Trump — even over more identifiably Christian candidates — evangelicals seem to have found a way to outsource their fears and instead reserve a strictly spiritual space for themselves inside politics without placing evangelical politicians themselves in power. In that sense, they can be both active political agents and a semi-cloistered religious minority, both of the world and removed from it, advancing their values while retreating to their own societies.
Conservative white evangelical internet troll Ben Howe explained his own kind less sympathetically to Emma Green:
...Trump's appeal is not judges. It's not policies. It's that he's a shit-talker and a fighter and tells it like it is. That's what they like. They love the meanest parts of him.
Okay, I get it. White evangelicals are just scared witless by losing racial and cultural hegemony; they are using Trump to defend their bunker....But I'm left with the question: how did white evangelical Christianity become the bastion of ignorance that this strain among us serves as today? If you are accustomed to using your wits to comprehend your surroundings, you are a lot less likely to be scared witless. And it wasn't always this way. It was some pretty rock-ribbed white Protestants who founded the country's early intellectual and scientific institutions -- Harvard, Princeton, even the first public schools.
And for all that, by the early 20th century, too many (most?) white evangelicals experienced basic science, especially in the form of evolutionary theory, as incompatible with their most cherished beliefs. Catholic and Protestant Christians made peace with science; evangelicals did not. It's awfully hard to live at peace with modernity -- with a civilization that can put a human on the moon, blow up the planet, and is creating climate chaos -- without living in a world informed by science.
A Pew Social Trends survey concludes that the same divide that gave us the blind partisanship which led to Trump also is leaching into attitudes toward education. By and large we think we need it -- but we are becoming dubious:
Americans see value in higher education – whether they graduated from college or not. ... Even so, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction – even suspicion – among the public about the role colleges play in society ...
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on the way things are going in the country these days. About four-in-ten (38%) say they are having a negative impact – up from 26% in 2012.
And that divide has a partisan cast:
Healing for this country must include helping people -- especially white evangelical Christians -- both think and feel that knowledge of the world is a good; can we do that?
Labels: education, fear, religion, Republicans
When the well runs dry: cooperation yields better result than competition
This map offered today by the Washington Post provides a scary picture of the many areas of the United States where climate chaos and human density are putting strain on water resources, especially in southwestern states. Are we going to end up like Cape Town, South Africa, where increasing shortages almost led to a complete municipal water shut off in a modern city? The story is worth reading.
But there's another story worth contemplating:
The climate-inspired detente on the Colorado
For the first time in history, low water levels on the Colorado River have forced Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico to cut back the amount of water they use. ... "It is a new era of limits," said Kevin Moran, who directs the Environmental Defense Fund's Colorado River efforts.
... But these water-use reductions are also an example of people binding themselves to rules to deal with scarce resources, rather than going to court, or war. The cutbacks come from an agreement hammered out by the Southwestern states and Mexico to impose limits on themselves.
"It's not necessarily well known or talked about, but this collaboration between the states and Mexico is one of the most successful cross-border water management stories in the world," Moran said.
Over the long course of history, the various parties have fought each other over water, but found that cooperation simply works better, Moran said. ...
Labels: climate, water
Got the grumps
What could be more banally representative of our hyper-connected lives than what I spent yesterday doing ... repairing the havoc caused by a hacked credit card? This grumpy gargoyle seems to feel rather as I felt while changing my settings online on a multitude of websites.
This is not the fault of the credit card company. They caught the hack before any serious damage was done and promptly issued a replacement.
But it was a lot of labor. Every regular vendor I use -- health insurance, internet access, e-commerce, a gym, some charities -- had to be changed. And every one of them had a different procedure and a differently organized web site where I could accomplish this. The process was a kind of tutorial in web design, mostly bad.
Such is convenience.
Blogging will resume when I recover.
Saturday scenery: Woodstock
It's been 50 years since the iconic counter cultural gathering.
It's certainly a lovely setting.
In 1969, 400,000 people crowded into this field. And yes, then it rained.
For someone, the memory is so happy they've put the name of the property owner on their license plate. Perhaps part of the family?
No, I wasn't there. But I keep running across people in my circles who were -- guess that says something I find endearing about my friends. I took these shots in 2014 when one of the ones who had been there showed us the site.
U.S. actions have Central American consequences
Amilcar Perez Lopez traveled to San Francisco to work for his family's well-being; the boy from Guatemala kept his head down and was a "good worker" according to those who knew him. He found a neighborhood where there were many others like him; in the photo, the Mission community turned out to protest impunity for the SFPD officers who shot him in the back in 2015.
Erudite Partner argues that the current surge of migration from Central America that Donald Trump is using to stir up racist fears of "invasion" has been building for decades. In fragile states, corruption, and climate chaos have pushed people onto a terrible road."The US has driven Central Americans to flee," she explains:
There is indeed a real crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Hundreds of thousands of people like Amílcar are arriving there seeking refuge from dangers that were, to a significant degree, created by and are now being intensified by the United States. But Donald Trump would rather demonize desperate people than deploy the resources needed to attend to their claims in a timely way — or in any way at all.
It's time to recognize that the American way of life — our cars and comforts, our shrimp and coffee, our ignorance about our government's actions in our regional "backyard" — has created this crisis. It should be (but in the age of Trump won't be) our responsibility to solve it. ...
We broke these countries, we continue to break them, and we don't understand we own this.
Labels: Central America, cruelty, immigration, migration, rule of law
The unaccustomed hot weather has us pulling curtains and opening windows strategically. We don't actually have to worry about Morty trying to escape. He doesn't like heat and he's a bit of a fraidy cat.
Chronicler of power
Is Robert A. Caro a biographer? Perhaps a political reporter? A social historian? An investigative journalist? All of the above? That seems right. I know of no other writer of contemporary history whose works present such a broad yet still human-scale portrait of his subjects' lives and surrounding times.
In this little book -- Working -- he shares with his readers something of how he does whatever it is he has been doing in writing The Power Broker about New York titan Robert Moses and the still unfinished five (?) volume The Years of Lyndon Johnson. In particular Caro shares nuggets about some of the most powerful passages in those volumes. Even if you haven't read about how Moses devastated the South Bronx community of Tremont Street or how the women of the Texas Hill Country survived in Lyndon Johnson's youth, you get a manageable taste here. The book is a delight.
And what we learn of Caro's process certainly seems in harmony with his product. He researches obsessively, immerses himself in his subject's places and artifacts, researches some more, interviews available witnesses repeatedly -- and finally writes draft after draft, long hand. He works doggedly and apparently happily. He knows that his readers now wonder whether he'll live to finish his decades long Johnson opus; what's he doing offering this distraction from the main work?
I have so many thoughts about writing, so many anecdotes about research, that I would like to preserve for anyone interested enough to read them. I decided that, just in case, I'd put some of them down on paper now. ...
He claims he's actually a fast writer, a newspaper re-write man on a lifelong detour. But investigative reporting taught him to "turn every page" -- to follow every lead as far as it may lead him. He's a almost precious about this.
It's the research that takes the time -- the research and whatever it is in myself that makes the research take so long, so very much longer than I had planned. Whatever it is that makes me do research the way I do, it's not something I'm proud of, and it's not something for which I can take credit -- or the blame.
Ultimately, Caro's subject is "an examination of the essential nature -- the most fundamental realities -- of political power." Taking Robert Moses as his subject, he refined what that meant:
I had set out to write about political power by writing about one man, keeping the focus, within the context of his times, on him. I now came to believe that the focus should be widened, to show not just the life of the wielder of power but the lives on whom, and for whom, it was wielded; not to show those lives in the same detail, of course, but in sufficient detail to enable the reader to empathize with the consequences of power -- the consequences of government, really -- on the lives of its citizens, for good and for ill. To really show political power, you had to show the effect of power on the powerless, and show it fully enough so the reader could feel it.
Having explored an urban and state wielder of power, he looked to the national level. He wanted to describe some one who had done ""something that no one had done before." Johnson, among myriad accomplishments and failings, fit that bill:
For a hundred years before Lyndon Johnson, since the halcyon era of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, no one had been able to make the Senate work -- and in the fifty-nine years since Lyndon Johnson left the Senate, no one's been able to make the Senate work. But he made it work.
His volume on Johnson's Senate tenure remains an essential text on that impediment to the popular will for all the changes in style and content of US politics since the 1950s.
Speaking of changes, Caro's description of his working relationship with his wife and partner Ina reads quaint and, perhaps, under-considerate in 2019. He is unstinting in his praise of her contributions -- her contributions to what he nonetheless considers his great project. They worked together in the LBJ library, digging through the impossible volume of records. But he had another idea:
Working in the Reading Room with me would be Ina, in whose thoroughness and perceptivity in doing research I had learned to trust. ...
... I said to Ina, "I'm not understanding these people and therefore I'm not understanding Lyndon Johnson. We're going to move to the Hill Country and live there." Ina said, "Why can't you do a biography of Napoleon?"
But Ina is Ina: loyal and true. She said, as she always says: "Sure." We rented a house on the edge of the Hill Country, where we were to live for most of the next three years."
I can't help but wonder if Ina had more to say here, but I suppose we'll never know.
For all that, Robert A. Caro is a treasure of truths about power. Studying these great and horrible men of power, he reflects on what redeems the squalid squabbling of government, not always by the people:
There is evil and injustice that can be caused by political power, but there is also great good. It seems to be that people have forgotten this. They've forgotten, for example what Franklin Roosevelt did: how he transformed people's lives. How he gave hope to people. Now people talk in vague terms about government programs and infrastructure, but they've forgotten the women of the Hill Country and how electricity changed their lives. ... We certainly see how government can work to your detriment today, but people have forgotten what government can do for you. They've forgotten the potential of government, the power of government, to transform people's lives for the better.
...I read this as an audiobook and strongly recommend that medium. Caro reads it himself....Previous blog posts here about Robert A. Caro's books:
The Power Broker:
He got things done
Lyndon Johnson:
The hardness of the women's lives
A politician with no redeeming features
Lyndon Johnson, the Senate, and the people
A Lyndon Johnson tease
Labels: booktalk, democracy, history, politics
A haunting border-crossing narrative
This short film follows the ordeal of a Honduran asylum-seeking family separated by Trump's border police -- and ultimately reunited in the U.S. onto a difficult path forward.
It is beautiful, contradicting the story it tells. I guess that is the story of our times.
I usually don't watch video content, but this is not to be missed.
Labels: immigration, migration
Creating friction where he could
US champion fencer Race Imboden acted in response to his feeling that something ought to be done. He explains himself here.
I'm proud to be an American fencing champion. Here's why I knelt for our anthem.
... at the podium, my palms wet from nerves, when the "Star-Spangled Banner" began to play, I took a knee — following in the footsteps of Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith: black, LGBT, female and Muslim athletes who chose to take a stand. I'm not a household name like those heroes, but as an athlete representing my country and, yes, as a privileged white man, I believe it is time to speak up for American values that my country seems to be losing sight of.
I've been honored to represent my country in international competition, and each time I hear our national anthem played, it's a moment of personal pride. I love my country, full stop. When I look around, though, I see racial injustice, sexism, hate-inspired violence and scapegoating of immigrants. This isn't new, but it feels like it's getting worse, and after the mass killings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, I wanted to use that moment on the podium to send a message that things have to change.
Rather than acquiesce in hate and passivity, each of us we resists where we can. Each of us can learn from others that resistance is possible.
Labels: hope, resistance
Unexpected good news
The findings from this Gallup Poll blow my mind. Apparently Trump/GOP howling about "an invasion" and visible cruelty to migrants at our southern border have had the effect of sensitizing an increasing fraction of us to our neighbors who are seeking asylum. Even rank and file Republicans are becoming more sympathetic toward migrants.
Support for allowing Central American refugees entry is now higher than Gallup has found for most refugee cases it has polled on historically, including Syrian refugees in 2015 as well as stretching back to refugees from the German Holocaust in the 1930s and 40s.
More and more us think there's a border "crisis." Apparently more and more of us also understand that people coming our way are not marauding hordes, but desperate vulnerable humans.
It's time to isolate the hard core racists and oust craven Republican enablers.
Labels: democracy, hope, migration, racism, white supremacy
Nevada on my mind
Having spent two months in 2018 working to ensure that Nevada elected a Democratic US Senator and Democratic governor, I find myself tracking political doings in the Silver State.
This is facilitated by Nevada's having a courageous, thoughtful state nonprofit news site, The Nevada Independent. It's founder, Jon Ralston, is considered the go-to authority on state political machinations. The Independent posts a site that other journalistic outfits would be smart to emulate, the "Sisolak Promise Tracker" -- Steve Sisolak was that gubernatorial candidate whose name so many campaign visitors struggled to pronounce in 2018. Here's how they describe it:
Steve Sisolak made a lot of promises on the campaign trail and after taking office as governor. Below, The Nevada Independent tracked the progress and outcomes of Sisolak's biggest pledges and promises after the 2019 Legislature. We have decided that the fairest way to track promises is to label the ones that have been completed as such and the ones that have not yet been addressed as such. We will continue to monitor progress on promises throughout Sisolak's four years in office. We will not label any of the promises as failures until the end of the governor's tenure if they still have not been addressed.
So what has Sisolak accomplished so far? With Democratic majorties in the legislature, a lot:
invested in mental health services;
helped lower drug prices by increasing state bargaining for Medicaid rates;
increased selected Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors to encourage them to remain in Nevada;
established a Patient Protection Commission one of whose charges is avert surprise emergency room billing;
created a Maternal Mortality Review Program to figure out why too many women die in childbirth;
and joined other states' briefs against the Texas/Trump Justice Department attempt to bring down Obamacare through an ongoing lawsuit.
And that's just in the (very politically salient) area of health care. ...
Nevada will be the fourth state to express its preferences in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes -- after Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, but before the biggies like Texas, Massachusetts, Virginia, and California on March 3. It will be the first primary state which has a large Latinx population. Yet Nathaniel Rakich at FiveThirtyEight reports it's not getting much attention from the squabbling crowd. Marianne Williamson has been there more than any of the others.
... most Democrats are spending barely any time there. In the period we looked at, from the 2018 midterms to the end of July 2019, six candidates didn't visit Nevada at all after declaring their candidacy. And all but one have spent less than 5 percent of their campaign days there.
Hmmm -- you might think they'd show more interest. Though it is probably true the state is now purple-ish trending toward blue, it's been a recent battleground.
It's a very urban place. If what you know of Nevada has been driving across it on Interstate 80 you might think its an empty desert. However, almost all Nevadans live in either the Las Vegas area or around Reno/Sparks.
It's also a place with an authentically capable labor movement -- that is, something of a politically engaged working class.
These are Democratic strengths not well represented in the earlier primary states. Shouldn't some of these candidates be working them? If there's anything we know about 2020, it's that Democrats cannot be complacent!
Labels: 2020 elections, Democrats, Nevada
Two sides of our healthcare system failures
Couple dead in apparent murder-suicide left notes saying they couldn't afford medical care, police say
... Health-care spending in the United States has been increasing for decades, and costs for senior citizens are higher than those for citizens as a whole, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
An average of $18,424 per person was spent on medical care for people ages 65 and older in 2010 — five times the spending per child and three times the spending per working-age person, a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says.
Roughly 65 percent of senior citizens' medical costs are paid for through government services such as Medicare, which covers almost all seniors, and Medicaid, which covers low-income people and families. Health-care expenses more than double between ages 70 and 90.
Note that these old people were not uninsured. They had what our system offers. They were simply people for whom the US healthcare system didn't work because it cost too much.
... the United States spends almost twice as much on health care as 10 other wealthy countries, a difference driven by high prices — including doctors' and nurses' salaries, hospital charges, pharmaceuticals and administrative overhead. ...
Nonspecialist doctors in the United States are paid on average $220,000 per year — double the average salary in the other countries. Nurses and specialists were also compensated better. ... Administrative costs were 8 percent of health care spending in the United States, vs. an average of 3 percent among wealthy countries. ...
... prices can be difficult to curb, because one person's high price is another person's profit margin or salary. Hospitals are often among the biggest employers in a region. Pharmaceutical companies offer American consumers big innovation but big price tags — and the debate about how or whether something needs to be done about drug costs has typically fallen apart under the weight of extensive lobbying by the industry. ...
I may be wrong, but a heck of a lot of the political discussion of healthcare focuses on what seems only the first half of the problem: yes, we all need access. That means to the providers -- doctors, hospitals, etc (etc. of which there is a lot) -- there's some assurance they'll get paid something if they treat us. But we also need to be able to afford the care we need. Too many people have "insurance" which comes with costs so high they don't dare use it except in the most dire emergencies.
I'd be happier with the Democratic health care debates if more energy were going into saying directly what they hope to do about the affordability side of the challenge. We don't easily believe that "Medicare for all" would completely relieve us of impossible bills. After all, Medicare as it exists doesn't do that, though those of us who've made it past 65 are glad and grateful to have it. But we wonder ...
Labels: 2020 elections, Democrats, health
One path out of the woods?
Sometimes I get an inkling that our infuriating, endlessly clever, too frequently self-absorbed, species may -- just perhaps -- figure out how to avert the most devastating consequences of climate crisis.
Here's a woman with a consequential good idea -- and it has already gone into production.
Labels: annals of the anthropocene, climate, hope
To be afraid is appropriate, not crazy
Friends online, seeking to contextualize the El Paso massacre, pointed to this PBS documentary. (I snagged it from Netflix, but it is readily available in many outlets.)
It's a good, thorough, narrative of the sequence of events -- the ATF storming of Ruby Ridge, the incineration of the Waco Branch Davidians -- that formed the 1990s catalogue of government offenses that right wingers used to justify organizing in violent militias and, eventually, the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma's federal building. That domestic terrorist act killed 168 people, of whom about 100 were low level government employees and many of the others children in a daycare center. The film asks an all too contemporary question.
How could somebody get to that state in their life where they would be so angry and upset they would do something like this?
Joe Hersley, FBI agent
The perpetrator, Tim McVeigh, wanted to start the "next American revolution." A disgruntled failed soldier who loved guns, he drifted into neo-Nazi circles and became convinced that "the only way government is going to get the message is with a body count ..."
In the film, that indefatigable researcher of the right-wing, Leonard Zeskind, answers what we are now asking about El Paso suspect Patrick Crusius: was McVeigh some kind of sick sociopath, or did he come out of an identifiable right wing milieu?
There was no massive conspiracy, that much is true, but the idea that Timothy McVeigh was a lone killer, that is wrong headed. because it absolves the movement from which it all sprang. Timothy McVeigh was not on his own, he was the creation fo the white supremacist movement. He carried the Turner Diaries around and read it to people. He lived at the gun shows. He met neo-Nazis ... and the idea that there was no connection between the white supremacist movement and the events in Oklahoma City is patently false. There was a strong connection ...
And now we have a president who vibes with white nationalists ...
Labels: fear, guns, history, movietalk, rightwingers, social movements, Trump time
Every morning, Morty gets his blood pressure medicine stuck down his throat. Every evening, he gets a squirt of antibiotic before our bedtime. Not surprisingly, he spends a good bit of time in his hideaway, escaping these indignities.
But these assaults have given him a new lease on life. Looking quite well, isn't he, for an old gentleman.
A curiosity
Encountered in a heavily used public restroom.
What was whatever authority that put it there thinking? The setting is multilingual -- do users who are not English speakers respond? What do managers expect to learn from asking for feedback? Do they think users will treat the facility more gently if asked their opinion? What's the distribution of answers? -- I wouldn't be surprised if responses tended to the ends of the spectrum. I sense an instinct in myself to look for the positive button on the far right -- is this common and does it effect response? How many of us use this opportunity to rate a public toilet?
I didn't push a button. Sorry.
Chesa Boudin for District Attorney
"We have an adversary system," remarked San Francisco District Attorney candidate Suzy Loftus, making the sort of clichéd observation that passes without drawing attention to itself.
Yet I think that statement gets to the heart of what was being debated last night among the four aspirants to replace incumbent DA George Gascon who gave up instead on running for re-election, creating an opening for a new turn from a position taking hits from right and left.
Three conventionally qualified prosecutors -- Loftus, Leif Dautch, and Nancy Tung -- want the job as we've known it, and promise to do it better. They might.
Chesa Boudin, an experienced public defender, wants to redefine the job.
The adversary system of criminal "justice" necessarily fails for people whose lives and experience have placed them on the lower rungs of the system. When up against the force of the state, even with the help of our exceptionally competent public defenders, they just get ground up and discarded, occasionally brutally, but also simply as a matter of everyday procedure and without personal malice. Jail, bail, and ongoing criminal stigma don't heal individuals or communities.
Chesa Boudin thinks growing up with parents who were locked up and a career fighting for the dignity of poor people while exposing crooked cops qualifies him to turn the system upside down. He might.
If you think justice is not being done in San Francisco, Chesa is your candidate. He's not as smooth a speaker as the other candidates, though he's certainly passionate. But he knows from experience how the system works and who it fails. He deserves a shot in an office that's become so dysfunctional that the last guy just ran away. Let's give him a try in November.
Labels: campaigns, police, politics, rule of law, San Francisco
Once and future fears
Seventy-four years ago today, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, incinerating some 100,000 people and blasting into being one facet of the era of existential species instability.
To mark the anniversary of one of humanity's greatest atrocities and in light of the Trump administration's choice to trash the longstanding (and perhaps creaky) Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, here's Jeff Schogol who has made a journalistic career of covering the our muscle-bound military from close up.
We're all going to die.
That doesn't mean we're all going to die tomorrow, but before we delve into the United States government's withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, it's worth remembering that we are all mortal and our corporeal existence will end one day even if the world is not consumed by a nuclear holocaust or global warming or the heat death of the sun (Your daily motivation courtesy of your friend and humble narrator).
... On Friday, the United States formally withdrew from the INF Treaty. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement claiming, "Russia is solely responsible for the treaty's demise."
For defense industry, the end of the 32-year-old treaty meant to prevent Armageddon is surely more exciting than Christmas, July 4th, and the Super Bowl all wrapped up in an orgasm. Expect to see companies rolling out new lines of missiles for Prime Day; after all, nothing says "I love you" like a $500,000 million gift card for Raytheon.
... In other words, the Pentagon is free to become more lethal, and if there's one thing the U.S. military loves, it's lethality, which top civilian and uniformed officials are known to mix with baking powder and smoke it like crack cocaine. ...
While we persist and resist oblivion, we cannot forget.
Labels: annals of the anthropocene, history, resistance
When the invasion was not imaginary ...
That is, the invasion of Mexico by the United States. TPM passes along that
Natalie Martinez, a researcher at Media Matters, flagged yesterday that since May 2018 President Trump's reelection campaign has run roughly 2,200 Facebook ads using the word "invasion." Unsurprisingly, a quick perusal suggests they're all about immigration — namely, a Mexican and/or South American "invasion" of the United States which can only be prevented by President Trump and his wall.
Guess that's Trump's election message, successfully transmitted to the El Paso killer who drove 571 miles to find his brown targets.
Mexicans remember heroism under foreign assault from their own perspective. In 1931, muralist Diego Rivera painted bravery in defense against the firepower of the United States Marines in the Palacio Nacional de Mexico:
To defend [Chapultepec] castle [above Mexico City], Santa Anna installed General Nicolas Bravo with 1,000 troops, fifty military cadets, and some artillery in buildings and supporting earthworks. Beginning on 12 September [1847], Winfield Scott's artillery bombarded the castle; on 13 September, he launched his main attack.... The battle is rich in lore. Five teenage military cadets who refused to retreat and who defended the castle to their death—one jumped from the castle with the Mexican flag wrapped around his body, so the Americans could not capture it—are widely memorialized in Mexico as "Los Niños Héroes." ... Losses: U.S., 130 dead, 703 wounded, 29 missing; Mexican, at least 1,000 dead, wounded, or captured.
Mexicans continue to take casualties of our dangerous entitlement. Time to tear down walls and restore peaceful commerce to the border.
Labels: history, Mexico, migration
Saturday scenes: the coons are back in Golden Gate...
Does it really require closing a mountain peak to ...
When the well runs dry: cooperation yields better ...
Through all the changes in the city ...
This is what an Illinois moderate looks like ...
Saturday scenes and scenery: views from Gaylor Peak
Election mechanics miscellany
An honor roll of Democrats NOT running for president


Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled on-road price in Dhar - ₹ 10,60,305 onwards. It is available in 2 versions and 2 colors. All the colour options and versions of Scrambler Desert Sled might not be available at all the dealerships in Dhar.
You are currently viewing price of Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled in Dhar. Not from Dhar? Select your city to see price in your city.


text:
OIL to Invest $112m in Indian Oilfield Exploration
State-owned Oil India (OIL) is to invest Rs5bn ($112.9m) in the first phase of exploration of oil and gas blocks located on India's west coast. OIL was selected as the provisional operator for the shallow water offshore block MB-OSN-2010 / 2 in the ninth round of auctions under the pet
State-owned Oil India (OIL) is to invest Rs5bn ($112.9m) in the first phase of exploration of oil and gas blocks located on India's west coast.
OIL was selected as the provisional operator for the shallow water offshore block MB-OSN-2010 / 2 in the ninth round of auctions under the petroleum and natural gas ministry's new exploration licensing policy.
The exploration of blocks will cost approximately $75m.
The company said it is looking to partner with overseas explorers for technology transfer to develop offshore assets.
OIL is the operator for two onshore blocks and will partner with ONGC to develop five deepwater blocks, according to mydigitalfc.com.
The company is also working in the Assam-Arakan Basin.
Legend Natural Gas To Acquire Barnett Properties For $900 Million: A Move To Enter The Shale Play
Freeport - McMoRan to Acquire Plains Exploration & Production for US$6.9 Billion and 64% Stake in McMoRan Exploration for US$2.1 Billion to Add Oil and Gas to its Natural Resources Portfolio
TAQA to Acquire Oil and Gas Assets in the UK Central North Sea from BP for US$1.06 Billion to Expand its Operations in the Region

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
De Brouwhuissche Heide (ook Brouwhuise Heide, Bikkelse Heide of Vlierdense Bossen genaamd) is een op dekzand en deels op stuifzand geplant grovedennenbos van 390 hectare in de Nederlandse gemeente Deurne.

Eigenaar van het bos is de gemeente Deurne. Het bos ligt tussen Brouwhuis en Vlierden. Het bos maakt deel uit een groot aantal bosgebieden die de stad Helmond omringen. Ten noorden van dit gebied liggen het Zandbos en de Bakelse bossen; ten zuiden ervan liggen de Hoeven met het dal van de Astense Aa, de Oostappense Heide en de Dennendijkse bossen.

De Bikkels
Niet ver van Vlierden ligt een circa 5 hectare groot heideveld met stuifzandduinen, bekend als de Bikkels. Dit gebied is voor een deel begroeid met vele struiken en een dicht jeneverbesstruweel. Deze zeldzaamheid trekt veel wandelaars. Ook de zandhagedis wordt hier aangetroffen. De sperwer, boomvalk, houtsnip en zwarte specht behoren tot de broedvogels.
De kale stuifzandduinen met de grillig gevormde jeneverbessen gaven bij maanlicht aanleiding tot fantasieën over heksen en spoken. Vandaar de volksnaam Tutjesberg: een "tutje" is een oud wijf of heks.

Ook elders in de Brouwhuisse heide komt een beperkt aantal jeneverbesstruiken voor, zij het dat die vaak te lijden hebben van de schaduw van omringende dennenbomen. Er is een actief stuifzandcomplex nabij Helmond-Brouwhuis genaamd de Zwaanse Bergen.

Natuurgebied in Noord-Brabant
Zandverstuiving in Nederland
Geografie van Deurne (Nederland)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The topic of suicide is a difficult conversation to have, but preventing Veteran suicide is a conversation experts at the Department of Veterans Affairs have every day. Their work is constant and their commitment to our Veterans in crisis is 24-hours-a-day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Last year, the Veterans Crisis Line dispatched emergency responders an average of 30 times daily and made 80,000 referrals to suicide prevention coordinators at VA medical centers.


text:
Q: how to close popup using javascript with xml formatting I bought this program that created a pretty nice imageuploader flash script however I can't get the Javascript function close window to close the popup and redirect the original page.
here is the XML piece that defines the url's:
<urls urlToUpload="upload.php?" urlOnUploadSuccess="http://www.home.com/purchase.html"
urlOnUploadFail="http://www.home.com/tryagain.html"
urlUpdateFlashPlayer="http://www.home.com/flashalternative.html"
jsFunctionNameOnUpload=""/>

This last line calls a javascript function on upload. The problem is I don't know what to call and where to put it.
Here is the HTML file that is the popup:

<HEAD>
    <title>Baublet Uploader</title>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Q-ImageUploader  www.quadroland.com -->
<div id="QImageUploader">
 Flash Player stuff here
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
    var so = new SWFObject("q_image_uploader.swf", "imageuploader", "650", "430", "9", "#FFFFFF");
    so.addParam("scale", "noscale");
    so.addParam("salign", "TL");
    so.addVariable("AdditionalStringVariable","pass additional data here");
    so.write("QImageUploader");
// ]]>
</script>

I found this Closing script I thought might work:
<script language="javascript">
function close_window(page) {
window.opener.location.href=page
setTimeout(function(){window.close()},10);
}
</script>

Does this go into the Popup HTML page above or would it be a separate close.js file in the root?
Thanks,
I'm really confused.

A: It looks like that bit of script belongs to the popup. It changes the parent window's location and then closes itself after a ~10ms delay. The function close_window most likely is being called by the Flash applet.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Make an impression with your clients and customers with the Lacey Series Contemporary Sofa The contemporary design of this furniture adapts in several different settings. This sofa features button tufted cushions and stainless steel frame. Not only will this chair fit in a professional environment, but will add a modern look to your home.


text:
How Legal Services Help Dating Abuse Victims
One in three young people experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from a dating partner. This is an epidemic. Despite the urgency of this issue, survivors between the ages of 12-18 often have limited access to legal protections, including civil protection orders or restraining orders.... Read More
How Our Youth Leaders Create Brighter Futures
As adult allies, we work with youth to help them build healthy relationships, we work to provide much needed help services but most importantly we work to empower youth to become today's change to stand up and speak out and that is exactly what these amazing young people are doing. The National... Read More
Wear Orange4Love Day
Creating a culture without abuse takes all of us. With one in three young people experiencing some form of dating abuse, it is essential that we take a serious step toward deconstructing unhealthy relationships, and our beliefs about them. Your voice matters, and getting involved is the first step... Read More
Having the Hard Conversation: Talking to Your Kids About Dating Violence
Dating abuse affects everyone. It knows no boundaries and crosses all barriers. It can happen to anyone, at any time, at any age. This isn't just reflect in what we see in our lives -- it's in the statistics. Shockingly, one in three young people will experience some form of dating abuse, but... Read More
Why is teenDVmonth So Important?
During teenDVmonth, we've asked our National Youth Advisory Board to guest write blogs. This week's youth perspective is brought to you by Nicole De Sario, Executive Team Member. As you may know, the National Youth Advisory Board for loveisrespect consists of 24 youth aged 14-24 from all over... Read More
Announcing Our New Chief Executive Officer: Amy Sánchez
On behalf of the Break the Cycle Board of Directors, I am delighted to announce that the new Chief Executive Officer of Break the Cycle is Amy Sánchez. Amy is widely respected in the domestic violence field, and has a history of building organizations that engage communities to end violence. Amy... Read More
The Amanda Forum (Video)
Last January, The Amanda Forum's first annual conference, put together by the Caring Place of Valparaiso, Indiana as part of a youth dating violence prevention project in honored Amanda Bach. In 2011 Amanda was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. (He received a 60 year sentence for the murder and is... Read More
Technical Training & Assistance Team Making A Difference
Last month, Break the Cycle staff participated in the Trauma Informed Care Roundtable, conducted by the Sexual Violence Justice Institute (SVJI) of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Hosted by the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, SVJI brought together 15... Read More
Recovering from an Unhealthy Relationship
Going through a breakup is always difficult, no matter the circumstances. But going through a breakup after being in an unhealthy relationship can feel even worse. It's important to remember you're not alone and have the support of family and friends to get you through this tough time. Plus, it's... Read More
What Happens When a Breakup Goes Wrong
You've just gone through a breakup. It's intense, painful, and sad. These feelings are totally natural and expected. Despite these common feelings, many people don't want to accept or understand that their relationship has ended. What do you do when you break up with someone who won't let go,... Read More
How to Break Up Peacefully
When people start dating, there can be all kinds of fireworks and "butterflies in the stomach." Some time later, those feelings may have faded, replaced by the feeling that the two shouldn't be together anymore. So how can people break up without making them miserable, causing a scene, or worse... Read More
10 Things Not to Say on a First Date
First dates are exciting for anyone, especially for young people who may not have gone out on a date! That said, a first date can also turn into the perfect storm of nerves, hormones and tactlessness. It can be really easy to screw up the date by saying or doing the wrong thing. If you want to make... Read More
Leaving an Emotionally Abusive Relationship
Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez recently admitted she's been in an emotionally abusive relationship in the past. "I've never gotten a black eye or a busted lip, but I've felt abused in one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally," Lopez writes in a new memoir, True Love. Sadly, J.... Read More
5 Important Ways to Document Abuse
One threatening text may not be enough for someone to realize it's abuse, but multiple and repeated threatening texts are a pattern of behavior. The same goes for emails, phone calls, voicemails, and messages online. And often, when abuse happens digitally or verbally, it can escalate to something... Read More
Fighting Fair With a Partner
Part of being in a healthy relationship is communicating effectively, including when someone feels angry or disappointed. Disagreements and fights are bound to happen in any relationship, which is why it's crucial to know how to fight fairly with a partner. What is unfair fighting? It's when one... Read More
What Can Lawyers Do to Help Victims of Domestic Violence?
In many states, the laws are designed so that the victim can obtain a protection order or restraining order without a lawyer. But say there are children involved or there are issues with immigration. What if the abuser has a lawyer? If any of these pertain to your or your child's case, then it's a... Read More
The Connection Between Teen Dating, Adult Couples and Technology
Digital technology continues to eke a permanent place in American lives. How we communicate, who we meet, and how we meet them. How we manage our lives are increasingly dictated by the Internet, social media and cell phones. But how do couples in committed relationships, married or not, use... Read More
Warning Signs of Abuse: Name Calling
Everyone jokes around and teases their family and friends. It's the same in a relationship. However, there's a line between being playful and rude. What happens when it goes from innocent teasing to insulting? One of the biggest red flags of an unhealthy or abusive relationship is name calling.... Read More
This Animal is Not Appropriate During DVAM
Last week kicked off National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so we find it in bad taste that Maroon 5's "Animals" video came out days before, glorifying stalker behavior. At RAINN, they feel that the video is a "dangerous depiction of a stalker's fantasy." We tend to agree. From the... Read More
An Overview of Domestic Violence in Nepal
In this post, our co-worker Sagar offers a perspective on domestic violence entirely different -- and yet all too familiar -- from the one we have in America. From cultural norms passed down over time, to legal progress filled with loopholes, it paints a startling and similar picture of datng abuse... Read More


In this article, you'll find how to troubleshoot when you're redirected to your original language when clicking on a link.
First of all, it's related to the URL syntax in the source of your <a> HTML tag.
This is not the proper syntax and that's why you are redirected to the URL of your original web page language.
You need to add a slash ("/") at the end of the URL (directly in the source of your <a> HTML tag).
As you can see below, the URL in the source of the <a> tag is now: http://www.rmfhk.com/zh/storyteller/, with a slash at the end of the URL.
It's now working properly and you'll be redirected to the page version with the language selected.
The port number ":8510" is causing the issue. You must remove it and it will work properly.


text:
The Time of Jerome Zaslow's Life
The cover of Jerome Zaslow's first book, "The Time of My Life."
At Passover, circa 1938, are Jerome Zaslow, his parents and brothers: L to R, Jerome, Spencer, Ida, Irving and Arnold. From the book. Used with permission.
Marathon Man. Jerome Zaslow started running marathons at age 53 and has completed 14 of them!
PUBLISHED: December 5, 2011 at 10:00 p.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 1:40 a.m.
"When I was in public school, I was terrible at compositions," author and ATD American Company Chairman and Chief Strategist Jerome Zaslow said. "In the 1980s I started to write essays about my work, my business philosophies, my running … my life."
Now Zaslow's essays and life accounts have been published in his new book "The Time of My Life: What Boomers and Other Kids Should Know, by a Guy Old Enough to Be Their Dad," which was released in July.
"This is one of my big accomplishments," Zaslow said. "I never thought I'd publish [a book]."
Zaslow will be signing copies of his book at Barnes & Noble in Jenkintown on Dec. 10 from 12 to 3 p.m. and at Penn Book Store in Philadelphia Dec. 14 from 1 to 2 p.m. Copies of the book will be sold at discount in both locations during the signing: $14.75 for paperback and $19.75 for hard cover.
"The Time of My Life" spans Zaslow's entire life, talking about his childhood during the Great Depression, his rough neighborhood in Philadelphia, how he and his brothers grew his father's business and the challenges he's overcome through his adult life.
"I have no complaints about what I have," Zaslow said. "I have a good life."
The experience Zaslow describes as the most influential is a discussion he had with an employee of his father at age 15, who told him to go to college.
"He said to me, 'Go, even if you never use it,'" Zaslow said. After talking with this man, Zaslow said he approached his mother about going to college and she said he should go if he wanted to. She suggested he go to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania because of a client her father had who was a professor at the Wharton School. "[She said] because this professor was a nice man."
Zaslow looks back at this as one of the most altering moments of his life.
"That was the general thinking in those days. Not too many people went to college," he said. "Luckily, I got in and it changed my life. Had I not met this fellow, I would've probably never gone. I think about him every day."
Another experience Zaslow describes as important is becoming a runner at age 51 and a marathon runner at 53. After reading an article in a magazine, Zaslow became inspired to run in order to cut down the stress in his life.
"My life was very stressful," Zaslow said. "I needed to do something or I knew I'd have a heart attack."
Eventually, Zaslow said he started running with an employee from ATD, who suggested that he run a marathon.
"I said, 'It's impossible – in the next life,'" Zaslow said. But after persistently asking him to run it, Zaslow finally agreed to do the New York Marathon and started training. "She thought I could do it."
While Zaslow was training, his wife insisted he have a stress test done. He went to Holy Redeemer Hospital and passed, only to have her insist he get another at Temple University Hospital.
"The doctor said 'I don't know if you'll ever do 26 miles,'" Zaslow said. The doctor said because of his age and physical condition, it was possible the 26 miles would cause him to have a heart attack, to collapse or some other trauma. "I was devastated when I heard that. I really wanted to do this."
The next day, Zaslow talked with the doctor again who said if he was insistent on doing the marathon, he should run with a group of similar age and body condition.
Zaslow ran the New York Marathon and came in the seventh-to-last position.
"The seventh one from the end," Zaslow reflects, "but I finished."
Zaslow said he felt awful after the marathon and swore he'd never do another. While at age 86 now and unable to run much due to an injury, Zaslow has run in about 14 marathons – eight New York Marathons, four Boston Marathons, one Marine Corps Marathon and one London Marathon.
"I attribute my good health to working out," Zaslow said. "A lot of times when you're young, you don't think about it, but you have to plan ahead.
In addition to his life story and the stories of people who influenced him, Zaslow shares his insights about business, teaches the basics of accounting and analysis observances he's made over time, including what he's found to be most important in life.
"Money is important, but more important than that is family and getting along," Zaslow said. "[In life] it's knowing what's important and what's not."
Jerome Zaslow
will sign copies
of his book
at Barnes & Noble,
835 Old York Road,
Jenkintown PA 19046,
Saturday, Dec. 10, 12 – 3 p.m.,
& at Penn Book Store,
3601 Walnut St.,
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 1 – 2 p.m.
Info: www.Jerrysbook.com.


Yoohoo. It's your favorite blogger who is always disappearing. I'm kind of like Judy Winslow on Family Matters. One minute I'm there, and then the next minute I'm gone!
Actually, I'm more like Dylan McKay when he left Beverly Hills, 90210 and then came back because the world needed his sideburns.
You might not need my sideburns, world, but you DO need my Emmy predictions. So lucky you, I have returned from the dormant! Call me Mount DVR Files, because I am about to SPEW major pop culture lava! The Emmys are just a few days away and we have LOTS of categories to cover. Ready?
Our first award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie.
Well, what do you know? I've seen ONE of the shows nominated, Olive Kitteridge! And what do you know, it's one of the best things I watched on TV all year! It's the rare occasion when the movie is better than the book (for all you non-literary freaks, the HBO miniseries was based on the book of the same name by author Elizabeth Strout.).
I'm sure Timothy, Ricky, Adrien, David, and Mark were all great in their roles, but Richard Jenkins is one of my favorite TV dads of all time, even when he's dead. His role in Olive Kitteridge is no exception.
I miss Six Feet Under!
This entry was posted in Emmys and tagged Emmys, HBO, Olive Kitteridge, Richard Jenkins, Six Feet Under. Bookmark the permalink.
just watched David Olewoyo in Nightingale; while I loved Jenkins in Olive K, it was a more subdued performance and he has a stroke for the last act … Olewoyo is the ONLY one on camera for 82 minutes; it's riveting, disturbing, over the top, CRAZY … just the kind of performance Emmys love — AND he's coming off an Oscar nod for Selma which many in the industry felt was overlooked ….
Nightingale got NO buzz whatsoever. The only time I heard about it prior to the noms was while watching something else on HBO, on Demand. I'll have to check it out!


text:
@interface NSMutableArray (Shuffle)

- (void)shuffle;
- (void)shuffleRange:(NSRange)range;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


[jira] Commented: (CLK-544) FieldSeparator control.
Subject [jira] Commented: (CLK-544) FieldSeparator control.
Would you please check this in?
Or are there any objections for including this into the official Click 2.2.0?
but not to add them to a FieldSet (since this should be a pure visual effect).
FieldSet seems to be aligned differently (due to the use of tables for auto-rendering).
>     // override container methods since this should be a pure visual control.


Body Within, INC specializes in getting you strong, healthy, and conditioned safely and effectively.
We are a local, independently-owned fitness center located in Howell with a focus on group exercise and camaraderie. We offer indoor cycling, group training, free weights, childcare, and much more.
1135 E. Grand River Ave.


text:
The 11 Best Uses of "Bitch," 2013: Yeah, Bitch!
By Kelsea Stahler
It's universally acknowledged that when the word "bitch" is used to degrade a woman, it's certifiably abhorrent. But when it's used as an empowering, motivational tool, a term of endearment, or a modifier for anything out of Jesse Pinkman's mouth, it crosses over from terrible to awesome. And in 2013, we encountered quite a few memorable "bitches." Click on to remember them!


This week the Arkansas legislature has exceeded its standards for ignorance and arrogance with Senate Bill 2, which outlaws abortion in cases where the fetus is genetically impaired with Down syndrome. The text of the bill, https://legiscan.com/AR/text/SB2/id/1959872/Arkansas-2019-SB2-Draft.pdf, specifies felony charges against any physician who performs an abortion for a woman with a Down syndrome fetus.
Let that sink in. A woman cannot terminate a genetically impaired fetus. She cannot save herself or her family or their future from the staggering workload of caring for someone with an IQ of 50, who in 80% of cases can never live independently or work to support his or herself, who will be subject to serious medical issues such as congenital heart defect, epilepsy, leukemia, thyroid diseases, and mental disorders. About half will suffer severe sleep apnea, throat infections, chronic constipation, and high rates of various cancers, to name but a few.
This is yet another play by the Forced Birth movement, not content to let women and couples decide when and how to put their unique sets of DNA into the world.
Who pays for this? Well, even though Arkansas has so far removed over 15,000 people from its Medicaid services for failing to report work hours, anyone born with Down syndrome is automatically qualified for Medicaid. For life.
Between medical costs and the sheer physical and emotional effort involved in raising a Down syndrome child, the state is seriously overstepping its moral authority to force this on anyone.
No one is forcing women to abort a genetically impaired fetus. If a woman chooses to keep such a pregnancy and enter into the lifelong commitment of caring for the impaired child, that is her rightful choice. The state should leave it at that.
This entry was posted in current events and tagged abortion rights, Arkansas legislature, disabilities, Down syndrome, Family Council, Forced Birth movement, freedom of choice on March 23, 2019 by Denele Campbell.


Groundwater is indisputably an important resource contributing 40% of total annual supply. However, over-exploitation has depleted groundwater availability considerably and also led to land subsidence at some places. Assessing the potential zone of groundwater recharge is extremely important for the protection of water quality and the management of groundwater systems.The study is taken up to study the role of geo-informatics technology in the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the watershed program on the ecological and drainage system which in turn led to changes in the environment.
Aditya Nilawar, Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, SGGS IE&T. Milind Waikar obtained his M.Tech (Civil) from IIT Kharagpur and Ph.D. from IIT Roorkee and is currently Professor of Civil Engineering and Dean (Academics) at Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering & Technology, Nanded, India.


text:
Watch The Detectives
Cop Fights to Keep His Secret Mercenary Army
300 residents. 100 reservist cops who paid handsomely for their badges. One embattled police chief, trying to hide the names of his pay-for-play deputies. Welcome to Oakley, MI.
M.L. Nestel
Photo Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast
Oakley is a hamlet barely the size of a gnat on a Michigan map, but it has a cyclopean police problem. The 300 person town is farming out its law enforcement to 100 wealthy, mostly anonymous out-of-towners who pay big money to become reservist cops—complete with bulletproof vests and special gun permits. And while outrage has mounted over Oakley's glut of faceless reservists, the top cop there continues to lord over a pay-to-play-police racket.
Now, state lawmakers and the feds are closing in with new laws and investigations focusing on town's cop kingmaker to force him to out his secret posse.
But Oakley Police Chief Robert Reznick said there's no way he'll give up the names. ISIS, he claimed, maybe after his auxiliary police force. "These are brutal people who absolutely have no value of life," Reznick told me. "Whether or not it's far-fetched doesn't matter. Why would you want to put them in harm's way?"
Oakley's reservist force isn't unique. In fact, they are a routine part of police departments throughout Michigan. But few towns have turned volunteer cops into a money-making machine like Police Chief Robert Reznick. In his last interview since lawyering up entirely months ago, The Daily Beast got a firsthand account of how Reznick runs his cop shop.
"I bring in thousands and thousands of dollars," Reznick told me back in October. "Without that money from the police department the town would not be running."
The formula worked for years in Oakley, where Reznick served as chief. This past year, Reznick was hired to be the police chief in nearby Waterloo Township, as well (PDF). Once there, Reznick pulled the same pay-for-play reservist move. A donor list acquired by The Daily Beast reveals a doctor named Jonathan D. Rose giving Waterloo's police force a 2013 Chevy Tahoe worth almost $50,000. A man named Albert Rabil shelled out $25,000 cash. And Harry A. Brink, the owner of US Speedo, a time device manufacturer, gave Waterloo's police department $10,000.
Last May, Harry Brink made headlines when he was caught trying to make shoddy loans in return for lux cars while running an illicit pot enterprise. When Brink was busted with 200 pot plants, sources close to the case told The Daily Beast, had $500,000 in cash.
Waterloo is now disbanding its police force. "We stopped patrol Feb. 1," a Waterloo Township cop named Bob said. He added that Chief Reznick was working on "a part-time kind of basis" to help their fire sale of weapons and equipment. "We're going to sell off whatever is of any value to other departments in the county and meanwhile we're getting police services from the county and the state."
Oakely, on the other hand, has doubled down on Reznick—despite the fact that the police department was shut down from September through November because it was unable to get insurance because of the ongoing investigations.
Oakley only stretches one-square mile, has a single streetlight, a grain elevator, a bar and a couple churches. But Reznick nevertheless maintains his force of 300 reservists to "police" the town. Almost every single one of his reservists lives more than an hour away. And these tourist lawmen don't have to do much beyond plunking down thousands of tax-deductible dollars. The auxiliary cops range from high-powered attorneys, celebrity doctors and even NFL players.
To get an Oakley badge and an ID these wannabe cops pony up $700 for a bulletproof vest, $400 for their weapon, and a couple hundred for the uniform, Reznick said.
Reznick said his cop perform house checks when locals are on vacation, as well as wellness visits for the sick and even deliver hams to residents each Christmas. Most importantly, perhaps, the reservists pay up. Reznick said $30,000 of the funds went into the town's Playscape, renovated the Village Hall, fit the police department with a new cruiser and a golf cart, and helped officers acquire new shotguns.
In 2011, Oakley also managed to get some almost $30,000 to purchase 85 bulletproof vests courtesy of Uncle Sam (PDF).
But Oakley couldn't collect the armor in time, and since then Oakley reservists "ended up picking up the bill" and buying the bulletproof vests, Reznick said.
Stranger still, Oakley reservists are granted special firearms permits, which give them the ability pack heat almost anywhere in Michigan—including places deemed off-limits to civilians. Place like casinos, bars, stadiums, and daycare centers.
Why the pseudo cops would need to carry an unrestricted pistol permit, don a cop uniform, and wear a bulletproof vest in a town virtually without felonies is anyone's guess.
"There isn't any crime," Chief Reznick conceded. "The surrounding Township and adjoining county all have crime… The reason we don't have any is because of the police presence is here."
But these supposed heroes of law enforcement don't want their identities revealed. And for months, Oakley's police chief has vowed those names would never come out. "Who gives a shit who is on the reserve unit," Reznick said about keeping the names private. "These are people who don't want their names out there, that do good for the community and do good for town and do good for individuals."
But some of the who's who on Chief Reznick's reservist roster have leaked out. They include: Michael S. Kent, a fixture on infomercials for the face-lift procedure Lifestyle Lift. The plastic surgery outfit was under investigation by the attorney general's office in both New York and Florida when customers claimed the surgery was overhyped.
Kent's lawyer Ken Zorn on Wednesday told The Daily Beast the doctor forfeited his badge: "He's already gotten rid of it some time ago."
Jason Fox, is one of a pair of NFL players who defend Oakley from across the country. The Texas native is currently a tackle for the Miami Dolphins.
Asked about Fox being an Oakley reservist while he's based in Miami, Reznick answered that pro football players can protect and serve even from afar. "Most NFL team players don't live in the state of the team that they play in most of the time."
Asked about other out-of-towners who are also reservists Reznick became nonplussed: "So what if they are?"
Reznick, who said he earns $500 a month salary as Oakley's chief, claimed he only turned to reservists when Oakley's denizens chickened out. "Nobody ever stepped forward and said 'Well do it. We'll serve.' It's also expensive. You have to buy your uniforms and you gotta pay for the equipment."
Still, the reservists' names remain hidden. That could change. Especially after Saginaw News reporter Brad Devereaux faced off against the predominantly pro-police chief board in Oakley and filed a Freedom of Information Request and was flat out told "No document exists."
"How can a government have a bunch of supposed citizen-reservists and no list of their names," attorney Philip Ellison, who represents several Oakley residents fighting against the village to release the names of the reservists, told The Daily Beast. "It was a bureaucratic lie in the worst way."
Then in October, an Oakley reservist tossed a Hail Mary to keep the names anonymous. ISIS. Yes, ISIS!
In a letter dated Oct. 15, Herschel Fink, a notable copyright and libel lawyer who reps The Detroit Free Press, warned that releasing the names would deliver a death sentence to Oakley's reservists.
Fink cited an FBI bulletin released two days prior suggesting "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and online supporters call for attacks against law enforcement and government personnel."
This week, when The Daily Beast reached Herschel Fink about the ISIS letter, he had little to say. "I have no clue. You probably have to talk to the police chief. There's nothing much I can tell you."
Reznick said there are a litany of reasons to protect his reservists' identities. "The ISIS claim and the terrorist claim are only part of it," Reznick added. "The majority of them are friends of mine and I'm going to protect them."
Beyond the reservist controversy, Reznick has managed to dodge accusations of his own misconduct. One alleged incident took place before Oakley's annual biker rally hosted by the local Oakley Family Tavern in September 2013.
Reznick fanned out with over a dozen of his reservists that day to deal with over "600 bikers."
"They're yelling over the loudspeaker, you could hear them all over town. 'Ladies: show us your fucking tits.'" Reznick said. "That's not the kind of thing that should be going on in a small community like Oakley."
Family Tavern co-owner Shannon Bitterman said the police presence was overkill and that Reznick wanted revenge for a failed romance.
"[Reznick] was bothering our barmaid for months and months asking her to work for him and clean his house," Bitterman told The Daily Beast.
When the advances were rebuffed, Reznick threatened violence. "The last straw was he came into the bar and told her that he'd put her in his trunk and take her for a ride."
The woman was so spooked, she went to work everyday wielding a kitchen knife.
Reznick blamed that incident on a big confusion about a missing knife, not a malicious threat: "The barmaid had to take a knife out of the kitchen and she never took it back so they were out of knives."
Yet another accuser appeared on Facebook saying Chief Reznick stalked her in Perry, Michigan, where he was once on the police payroll.
"Reznick stalked me for a while before making his move," she wrote last week. "He had set up a life with me without ever meeting me." Reznick allegedly demanded to be invited to her house for a "relationship." She said she was forced to sign a statement that his overtures were reciprocated or else "he threatened to arrest me."
Reznick said he's innocent. "The lady said I didn't do anything wrong," Reznick told me. "I took a polygraph and passed."
Perhaps. But Reznick and his mini-army are now facing new troubles. On Feb. 10 the state's Attorney General put out a formal document accusing Oakley, and specifically Police Chief Reznick, acted illegally by letting its "improperly-appointed" reservists run rip shod.
Oakley's "reserve officers have no authority to perform law enforcement functions for the Oakley Police Force," because they fail to meet state standards, according to the Attorney General's brief, released last week. Minting civilians as police reservists was done under "the wrongful assumption of governmental power."
A bill is moving through the State Legislature proposing to help regulate towns like Oakley whose reservist programs operate without any oversight.
State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker told The Daily Beast Wednesday she is hoping a reservist regulating bill passes. "You should have a governing structure that sets the parameters on what reserve officers can and cannot do."
The names of the donors, who essentially are all of Oakley's reservists, may be outed by March unless the Village of Oakley decides to fight the case in Michigan's Supreme Court.
As for Reznick, he's been ordered to appear in circuit court in Corunna, Michigan on March 4 to testify about the secrets of the reservist program. But the police chief told The Daily Beast he'll never sing. "When I give people my word I'm going to give them my word. They want me to protect their anonymity and I told them I would."


Coinbase has launched a new fund called Coinbase Ventures to invest in early-stage cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. In a blog post, Coinbase head of corporate and business development Emilie Choi said that the fund's goal is to strengthen the sector.
There's been "tremendous take up on the fund, well beyond anything we were expecting," he added and that it "confirmed what we thought, that there is actually more demand on the investor side than on the trader side." While Coinbase doesn't have current plans to add more cryptocurrencies to its exchange, investing in promising startups will help it find promising tokens, Hirji said.


From the Tank Museum Top Five Tanks series but this one is reversed. Enjoy.
I just love this guy. Every episode of him is entertaining, simply because of the way he's presenting the content.
David Fletcher is awesome. Sadly, he got his hair cut it seems. Looks a little less "Albert Einstein" now.


text:
Horrific Recap of July 11-July 17, 2021
Welcome back, horror fans! I had a great horror filled week, last week and that means it's time for another Horror Junket's Horrific Recap. It's really good to see you again and thank you for dropping by, as always I'm excited to get last week's horror news to you. If you haven't done so already, go ahead and grab your pillow tight—a little tighter now, because things are about to get spooky as we recap some of last week's horror news.
Sunday - July 11
There's a film I am looking out for on Netflix and it's a spooky little flick that comes from Italy. In a just a few days A Classic Horror Story will release on Netflix and I think it might be worth checking out.
Directed by Roberto De Feo and Paolo Strippoli, the film will star Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Francesco Russo, Peppino Mazzotta, Will Merrick and Yuliia Sobol. A Classic Horror Story will be available to watch later this week Wednesday, July 14.
Monday - July 12
Ted Bundy is quite the popular serial killer these days, the man having popped up in numerous films and shows recently.
This time around Ted Bundy, the infamous lady killer, will be played by Chad Michael Murray for another tale of the serial killer's twisted life. Joining Murray will be icon of horror, Lin Shaye, who will play Bundy's mother in the film written and directed by Daniel Farrands. Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman will premiere on August 16, with tickets available, here.
Ice Nine Kills' new album, The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, is coming soon in what will be the band's sixth album.
I guess you could call this one the band's sequel to their last album, The Silver Scream, which featured songs inspired by some of horror's most famous flicks. The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood has released a new single, "Hip To Be Scared ft. Jacoby Shaddix", and an accompanying music video, both featuring great vocal work from Jacoby Shaddix, the lead singer of Papa Roach.
Be sure to keep an eye out in the autumn when Ice Nine Kills' sixth album, The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood, drops October 15.
Tuesday - July 13
First reactions for Lamb are coming out of Cannes and they are mixed, mostly favorable, for the Icelandic film by first time director Valdimar Jóhannsson.
Lamb is a slow burn of a film that is being called "disturbing" and "original" in its premise with performances that


Spring was here for just a moment at last Saturday's warm Nuandao event in Beijing. Hundreds of people visited throughout the one-day affair, stopping by to hang out with designers and meet their products. Cupcakes and coffee provided by Fisheye Coffee were an agreeable treat. When the event came to its end, the sky sealed up and straaaaange March snowfall was in fact impending.
Nuandao is my first baby, born last year – it is a platform for designers and a destination for shoppers to bring happiness into daily lives. The "Spring Awakening Design Market" was one of our largest offline endeavors yet. 25+ designers, artists, brands and businesses spent weeks if not months preparing a special exhibition in the name of spring. Local Beijing-based designers such as D-SATA, Triple-Major, NLGX, and Natooke are among those that participated; Library Brass flew in from Taiwan just for the occasion to showcase their edgy pieces.
Xiao Tian Yu is a young ceramic artist. He uses fish motifs in contemporary renditions of the traditional art form. Besides the aquamarine celadon I am familiar with, Xiao Tian Yu displayed new pieces in black and red. This time at the event, he displayed alongside knives and tea utensils by Yang Si Nan on a Chinese tea bench. The pick here is made for Pu'er tea, to ensure that when poked, the flat rounds break down into leaves.
Lost & Found is a local brand that specializes in minimal furniture and home decor now with two stores across from each other at Andingmen's Guozijian Street. Lost & Found I is better for furniture inspired by vintage mid-century China, accessories (bags, rings, necklaces) and stuff for the home (clocks, cups, mugs) while Lost & Found II offers a heartier selection of minimal apparel and Chinese ceramics by famous potters.
Hannah Ren, Australian-Chinese jewelry designer unveiled for the first time in Beijing and retailed first through Nuandao. The collection's name "Closer to my heart" was a clever title to the gem-less rings. Available as earrings, necklaces and actual rings, and displayed on wooden rounds in a merry spring-time formation.
China might not be the first country that comes to mind when you say "design." Most people will probably think of Japan, Europe or the US. When people think of China, what probably will come to mind is manufacturing, production, and factories. Rather than just than these associations, I believe that in the near future, as individuals and brands alike are joining on the dialectic of art and design, China will become a country known for its creativity.
This entry was posted in Beijing, Covet and tagged Beijing, covet, design.
This is great. So many cute local products in one place!