Variety show

 Last 30 days has seemed mighty slow here at 


  bloggod 


But ...



 

United States multiply by secession into

179 feudal corporate anarchies that

Australia mad maxes into

125 apartheid type

Israel settlements that

57 Heinz sauce 

Canada roasts by

10 bo Derek swimsuits frim

Germany 

4 less scrutiny jerks in

Russia 

4 eyes 

Switzerland poked out 

3 castles for greedy

United Kingdom monarchs

3 times in wishbone battle

Türkiye squawks

3 gobbles and every ethnicity

Other non Asian 

67 too Micronesia to remember to pay to advertise.







Trump Corporate Rule Fascism

 

'Trump gave top US firms staggering tax cuts, with some paying $0 or less – report" 


Among lowest taxpayers were companies whose CEOs have become high-profile advocates for corporate social responsibility  


'Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including 

General Motors, 

Citigroup 

and 

 Netflix,  

have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, 

 with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits 

 and 23 paying nothing , 

 a report has found."


https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/trump-tax-cuts-us-companies 



Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Fascism AI

 "Luddism is founded on a politics of refusal,  

which in reality just means having the right and ability  

to say no to things that directly impact upon your life,” Sadowski tells me when we speak.  "  


'to do away with work would be to do away with a reason for living. “I think what we’re risking is a wide-scale loss of purpose,” 


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/17/humanitys-remaining-timeline-it-looks-more-like-five-years-than-50-meet-the-neo-luddites-warning-of-an-ai-apocalypse


 'Technological development is shaped by money, it’s shaped by power,  

and it’s generally targeted towards the interests of those in power  

as opposed to the interests of those without it.  

That stereotypical definition of a luddite as some stupid worker who smashes machines because they’re dumb?  

That was concocted by bosses.”"  

 


'Trying to shake humanity from its complacency about this, Yudkowsky published an op-ed in Time last spring that advised shutting down the computer farms where AIs are grown and trained.  

In clear, crisp prose, he speculated about the possible need for airstrikes  

targeted on datacentres; 

 perhaps even nuclear exchange." 



'"Masses of uncredited, unpaid-for human work was being harvested from the internet and repurposed by clever generative AIs.  

In spring 2023, Crabapple organised an open letter that called for restrictions on this “vampirical” practice. " 


"There is no cloud.  

There are vast datacentres sucking up water,  

electricity and rare-earth metals, 

 literally boiling up the planet"  

___ 


"In the US, where nearly four in 10 of all bitcoin are now mined,

 up to 50m tons of carbon dioxide is released each year due to the mining operations, 

 according to RMI, a clean energy thinktank."



********. 


"In addition to inconveniencing customers,

 the issue threatened emergency services nationwide  

since people couldn't make phone calls or send text messages.  

Local officials 

and emergency departments 

 pushed out alerts throughout the day advising people to use Wi-Fi to make calls."  



Push! Nudge. Blanketed. How? I didn't get any alert. 


__ 


"The backlash was a reminder of older controversies about bias in Google’s technology, when the company was accused of having the opposite problem: not showing enough people of color, or failing to properly assess images of them.


In 2015, Google Photos labeled a picture of two Black people as gorillas.  

As a result, the company shut down its Photo app’s ability to classify anything  

as an image of a gorilla, a monkey or an ape,  

including the animals themselves.  

That policy remains in place." 


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/technology/google-gemini-german-uniforms.html



"Gemini’s predecessor, Bard, which was named after William Shakespeare, 

 stumbled last year  

when it shared inaccurate information about telescopes at its public debut." 


$$$$$$$

Insert telescope humbly toward stumble,

Pop the zit. Banquet time for technology, wash floridly with glacier embryo. 


___ 


"up to 2.3% of the US’s total electricity demand last year came from just 137 mining facilities" 


US judge halts government effort to monitor crypto mining energy use

"Federal judge in Texas says new requirement would cause ‘irreparable injury’ 

to industry

 amid surging electricity usage

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/27/crypto-mining-electricity-use 


____ 


"Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including 

 General Motors, 

 Citigroup 

 and Netflix,  

have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, 

with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits   


and 23 paying nothing 


a report has found." 



Saturday, February 17, 2024

Go Team

 

Senseless violence they exclaim between chicken wings and army ads 

Licking the remote control clicker tape parade 

If polls are without sense,

What's their gist to the terrorist gun industry

A bounce off the braindead

Into the end zone oxygen depleted roundup worship orgy 

Pay your attention NATO 2% milk the arms industry ever 

So thoughtful, contemplative as a hallmark thinker basking in the sun 

Straddling the border 

Free slave or halfpriced intern 

Intelligence ain't sensitive to such gymnastics

It just scans for life 











Award time

" Hot on the heels of being named one of the top party cities in the country, 

 "Portland is finally getting some recognition that makes sense – according to Sleep Foundation Portland is the best city in the United States for sleep.


According to the survey, out of the top 75 cities in the country by population, Portland “rates as the best city for sleep with the lowest percentage of insufficient sleepers" 


___ 



Best at breathing

Third best at walking 

Number eight in digestion

Tied with Seattle for umbrella opening 

Fourteen in parking evasion 

Twenty third for passing the buck 

Thirty six in smiling unstoned 

And last in reading for children 





Saturday, February 10, 2024

Falsus in Uno Rene

 "crying wolf"  



"I also may use this as a basis to invoke falsus in uno,” 

 the judge wrote, referencing the maxim   


“false in one thing, 

 false in everything.” 

___ 



Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus 


 is a Latin maxim meaning "false in one thing, false in everything". 

 At common law, it is the legal principle that a witness who falsely testifies about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter. 

While many common law jurisdictions reject categorical application of the rule, the doctrine survives in some American courts" 


___ 



"Fascism?  

Maybe things went off the rails last time, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

 A pea-brained fear of vaccines? Sure, why not?  

A conviction that the old lady who lives in the forest  

is stealing our children and vivisecting them  

to consume their adrenochrome?  

That makes perfect sense." 


https://theintercept.com/2024/02/10/erik-prince-off-leash-imperialism-colonialism/



Related 

_____ 

 

"Portland Commissioner and mayoral hopeful ;

Rene Gonzalez  

recently said that he would temporarily stop using public transit  

after he alleged that a woman “accosted” him 

 aboard a MAX train, including subjecting him to  

 “deliberate, unwanted topics, embarrassment, lack of virtue, emasculation, genital distraught, mental gangrene in remission, et tu syndrome, Jonestown Envy, greasy lawyer jitters, Knightitis, congenital Fake grin, and ghastly Disbarment Magnet super collider physical contact.” 


And yet, footimouthage  obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive... ." 


,____ 



'Donald Trump won’t face the corporate death penalty after all.


A New York judge on Friday 

 spared the ex-president 

 that worst case punishment" 


https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-york-business-fraud-lawsuit-1acac26e66862f497782350f172cf970 





False Justice. 

The Electric Cord without Natives

  Lincoln  


"He sees a German he knows well in the crowd … he says: "

 ‘This is the day that we celebrate the founders and those who are descended from the founders.  

But even though all of you 

 are not the blood

 of the blood 

 of that generation,  

the Declaration [of Independence]  

says that you are  

like 

 the blood of the blood of the founders.  

And that’s the electric cord 

 that runs through the Declaration of Independence. 

 

"I love the phrase ‘electric cord’.  

How can you read that and not think Lincoln says naturalised Americans and refugees are the blood of our blood because they want liberty and they want to be here, as opposed to poisoning the blood of America?" 


_____ 


' I try every once in a while to remind myself and readers that for example, the welcoming spirit of progressive people in the Lincoln era … is happening at the same time   


Indigenous people are being removed and contained" 



https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/10/lincoln-harold-holzer-immigration-brought-forth-on-this-continent

Friday, February 09, 2024

Thursday, February 08, 2024

Less sugar Eye floss dynamo

 I'm just a grocery store gurl 

               I just came in 

My boyfriend n me gonna get a motel 

               Roomferdanite 

 

She ain't chewing gum at least 

Nonchalant,  ink on        neck scratches      

Not alarming just wanna 

          Wash it up 


They  ringing slow       who's clocking

The cart b4 rang $316 assorted crap 

Working         denim armor 

Just came in,   like        said 


People behind me foreign hurry 

Lady ahead there with her charge pointing out ripoffs 

Another import, I gooota pay                who's stopping you 

I'm sammutched just emmersing copacetic     no                 bruises just scratches 


              Eyegot all snack 

Bulk vegan crackanna kilo of cheese 

Some anchovy toothpaste 

       And garlic bouillon 


No wonder I'm a treat just as gruesome as the former 

      Latter ladder status quo 

No sugar eye floss dynamo 

 

She soloquizes with my                    conveyor belt flexing 

Soliloquy barcode a numeral              per hour 

That's what your wrist is for

        Scan the way out 

 

7 hour 49 is what's left 

      Vacation motel nix 

Innuendo ennui slightly dodgy 

        Ain't my trail mix 


Lick your fingers 

After twenties and triple down             past the fiftie$ 

I'm just a grocery human item 

          Thanks for less biting 






----FLB

SE PDX 



Three Penny Opera

  

"What's picking a lock compared to buying shares? 

 What's breaking into a bank compared to founding one? 

 What's murdering a man compared to employing one?"  

____ 



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Threepenny_Opera 



___ 


"Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear

And it shows them pearly white

Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe

And he keeps it, ah, out of sight

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe

Scarlet billows start to spread

Fancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe

So there's never, never a trace of red

Now on the sidewalk, huh, huh, whoo sunny morning, un huh

Lies a body just oozin' life, eek

And someone's sneakin' 'round the corner

Could that someone be Mack the Knife?

There's a tugboat, huh, huh, down by the river don'tcha know

Where a cement bag's just a-drooppin' on down

Oh, that cement is just, it's there for the weight, dear

Five'll get ya ten, old Macky's back in town

Now did ya hear 'bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe

After drawin' out all his hard-earned cash

And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor

Could it be our boy's done somethin' rash?

Now Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Sukey Tawdry

Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown

Oh, the line forms on the right, babe

Now that Macky's back in town

I said Jenny Diver, whoa, Sukey Tawdry

Look out to Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown

Yes, that line forms on the right, babe

Now that Macky's back in town

Look out, old Macky's back"

 


Songwriters: Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill / Marc Blitzstein 


____ 


"The work offers a socialist critique  

of the capitalist world.  It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.


With influences from jazz and German dance music, songs from The Threepenny Opera have been widely covered and become standards, most notably "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny"). 


"You are about to hear an opera for beggars.  

Since this opera was intended to be as splendid as only beggars can imagine, 

 and yet cheap enough for beggars to be able to watch, 

 it is called the Threepenny Opera." 

 ____ 




Thanks to my bike repairman, Jimmy. He's from Nahyok. We sometimes chat while he patches a tube and he referenced this Work the other day. Bertold Brecht, huh.  



----FLB  





____ 


"You people can watch while I'm scrubbing these floors

And I'm scrubbin' the floors while you're gawking

Maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell

In this crummy southern town

In this crummy old hotel

But you'll never guess to who you're talkin'.

No. you couldn't ever guess to who you're talkin'.

Then one night there's a scream in the night

And you'll wonder who could that have been

And you see me kinda grinnin' while I'm scrubbin'

And you say, "what's she got to grin?"

I'll tell you.

There's a ship

The black freighter

With a skull on its masthead

Will be coming in

You gentlemen can say, "hey gal, finish them floors!

Get upstairs! what's wrong with you! earn your keep here!

You toss me your tips

And look out to the ships

But I'm counting your heads

As I'm making the beds

Cause there's nobody gonna sleep here, honey

Nobody

Nobody!

Then one night there's a scream in the night

And you say, "who's that kicking up a row?"

And ya see me kinda starin' out the winda

And you say, "what's she got to stare at now?"

I'll tell ya.

There's a ship

The black freighter

Turns around in the harbor

Shootin' guns from her bow

Now

You gentlemen can wipe off that smile off your face

Cause every building in town is a flat one

This whole frickin' place will be down to the ground

Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and sound

And you yell, "why do they spare that one?"

Yes.

That's what you say.

"Why do they spare that one?"

All the night through, through the noise and to-do

You wonder who is that person that lives up there?

And you see me stepping out in the morning

Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair

And the ship

The black freighter

Runs a flag up its masthead

And a cheer rings the air

By noontime the dock

Is a-swarmin' with men

Comin' out from the ghostly freighter

They move in the shadows

Where no one can see

And they're chainin' up people

And they're bringin' em to me

Askin' me,

"Kill them now, or later?"

Askin' me!

"Kill them now, or later?"

Noon by the clock

And so still by the dock

You can hear a foghorn miles away

And in that quiet of death

I'll say, "right now.

Right now!"

Then they'll pile up the bodies

And I'll say,

"That'll learn ya!"

And the ship

The black freighter

Disappears out to sea

And

On

It

Is

Me"




Tuesday, February 06, 2024

Buckets of Glacier

  

Indra  


(/ˈɪndrə/; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas  and Svarga in Hinduism.  

"He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. 

He is a rough equivalent to Zeus in Greek mythology, or Jupiter in Roman mythology. 

 Indra's powers are similar to other Indo-European deities such as Norse Odin,  

Perun, 

 Perkūnas, 

 Zalmoxis,  

Taranis, 

 and Thor, 

 part of the greater Proto-Indo-European mythology. "   



'The Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice  

an hour  

due to the climate crisis,  

a study has revealed" 

____ 


"The possibility that the AMOC is a bistable system (which is either "on" or "off") and could collapse suddenly has been a topic of scientific discussion for a long time.[111][112] 


 In 2004, The Guardian publicized the findings of a report commissioned by Pentagon 

 defence adviser Andrew Marshall, which suggested that  

the average annual temperature in Europe would drop by 6 Fahrenheit between 2010 and 2020 as the result of an abrupt AMOC shutdown." 


"In general, a shutdown of the thermohaline circulation (THC) caused by global warming would trigger cooling in the North Atlantic, Europe, and North America.

 This would particularly affect areas such as the British Isles, France and the Nordic countries, which are warmed by the North Atlantic drift. 

Major consequences, apart from regional cooling, could also include an  

increase in major floods and storms, a collapse of plankton stocks,  

warming or rainfall changes in the tropics or Alaska and Antarctica, 

 more frequent and intense El Niño events due to associated shutdowns of the Kuroshio, Leeuwin, and East Australian Currents that are connected to the same thermohaline circulation as the Gulf Stream, or 

 an oceanic anoxic event — 

 oxygen (O

2) below surface levels

 of the stagnant oceans 

 becomes completely depleted

 – a probable cause of past 


 mass extinction events." 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturning_circulation





2015 study led by James Hansen found that the shutdown or substantial slowdown of the AMOC, besides possibly contributing to extreme end-Eemian events, will cause a more general increase of severe weather. Additional surface cooling from ice melt increases surface and lower tropospheric temperature gradients, and causes in model simulations a large increase of mid-latitude eddy energy throughout the midlatitude troposphere. This in turn leads to an increase of baroclinicity produced by stronger temperature gradients, which provides energy for more severe weather events. This includes winter and near-winter cyclonic storms colloquially known as "superstorms", which generate near-hurricane-force winds and often large amounts of snowfall. These results imply that strong cooling in the North Atlantic from AMOC shutdown potentially increases seasonal mean wind speed of the northeasterlies by as much as 10–20% relative to preindustrial conditions. Because wind power dissipation is proportional to the cube of wind speed, this translates into an increase of storm power dissipation by a factor ~1.4–2,. However, the simulated changes refer to seasonal mean winds averaged over large grid-boxes, not individual storms.[13]


In 2017, a study evaluated the effects of a shutdown on El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), but found no overall impact, with divergent atmospheric processes cancelling each other out.[120] In 2021, a study using a Community Earth System Model suggested that an AMOC slowdown could nevertheless increase the strength of El Niño–Southern Oscillation and thus amplify climate extremes, especially if another Meridional Overturning Circulation develops in the Pacific Ocean in response to AMOC slowdown.[121] In contrast, a 2022 study showed that an AMOC collapse is likely to accelerate the Pacific trade winds and Walker circulation, while weakening Indian and South Atlantic subtropical highs.[122] The next study from the same team showed that the result of those altered atmospheric patterns is a ~30% reduction in ENSO variability and a ~95% reduction in the frequency of extreme El Niño events. Unlike today, El Niño events become more frequent in the central rather than eastern Pacific El Niño events.[123] At the same time, this would essentially make a La Nina state dominant across the globe, likely leading to more frequent extreme rainfall over eastern Australia and worse droughts and bushfire seasons over southwestern United States.


July 2023, a paper from a pair of University of Copenhagen researchers suggested that

 AMOC collapse would most likely happen around 2057,

 with the 95% confidence range between 


 2025 - 2095."







Saturday, February 03, 2024

the rights of humanity were more important than the rights of property,

  

Samuel Joseph May  


 (September 12, 1797 – July 1, 1871)  


"was an American reformer during the nineteenth century who championed education, women's rights, and abolition of slavery.  

May argued on behalf of all working people 

 that the rights of humanity were more important than the rights of property, 

 and advocated for minimum wages  

and legal limitations on the amassing of wealth." 


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Joseph_May

His sister was Abby May Alcott, mother of novelist 

 Louisa May Alcott. 

..She grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 

 Henry David Thoreau 

and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."  


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitlands_(transcendental_center) 

"Fruitlands was a utopian agrarian commune established in Harvard, Massachusetts, by Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane in the 1840s, based on 

 transcendentalist principles. 

 An account of its less-than-successful activities can be found in 

 Transcendental Wild Oats by Alcott's daughter Louisa May Alcott.

***

Lane purchased what was known as the Wyman farm and its 90 acres (36 ha), which also included a dilapidated house and barn.  

Residents of Fruitlands ate no animal substances,  

drank only water,  

bathed in unheated water 

 and "no artificial light would prolong dark hours or cost them the brightness of morning." 

Additionally, property was held communally, and 

 no animal labor was used."






 

Elk Falls, Prudence Crandall

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall

Prudence Crandall  

 (September 3, 1803 – January 27, 1890) was an American schoolteacher and activist.  

She ran the first school for black girls ("young Ladies and little Misses of color")  

in the United States,  

located in Canterbury, Connecticut.   


When Crandall admitted Sarah Harris, a 20-year-old African-American female student in 1832 to her school, 

 she had what is considered the first integrated classroom in the United States. 

 Parents of the white children began to withdraw them. 

 Prudence was a "very obstinate girl", according to her brother Reuben. 


Rather than ask the African-American student to leave, she decided that 

 if white girls would not attend with the black students, she would educate black girls. 

 She was arrested and spent a night in jail. Soon the violence of the townspeople forced her to close the school. She left Connecticut and never lived there again. 


Much later the Connecticut legislature, with lobbying from  

Mark Twain, 

 a resident of Hartford, passed a resolution honoring Crandall and providing her with a pension.  

Twain offered to buy her former Canterbury home for her retirement, but she declined. 

___ 


"After the death of her husband, Crandall relocated with her brother Hezekiah to Elk Falls, Kansas,  

around 1877, and it was there that her brother eventually died in 1881. 

A visitor of 1886, who described her as "of almost national renown, with "a host of good books in her house", quoted her as follows:


"My whole life has been one of opposition.  


 I never could find anyone near me to agree with me.  

NoEven my husband opposed me, more than anyone. He would not let me read the books that he himself read, but I did read them.  

I read all sides, and searched for the truth whether it was in science, religion, or humanity. 

 I sometimes think I would like to live somewhere else. Here, in Elk Falls, there is nothing for my soul to feed upon.  

Nothing, unless it comes from abroad in the shape of books, newspapers, and so on.  

There is no public library, and there are but  

one or two persons in the place that I can converse with profitably for any length of time.  

No one visits me, and I begin to think they are afraid of me.  

I think the ministers are afraid I shall upset their religious beliefs, and advise the members of their congregation not to call on me, but I don't care.  

I speak on spiritualism sometimes, but more on temperance, and am a self-appointed member of the International Arbitration League. 

 I don't want to die yet. I want to live long enough to see some of these reforms consummated. "




Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day 


The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you 


Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play? 


Dear Prudence, open up your eyes

Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies 


The wind is low, the birds will sing

That you are part  

of everything 


Dear Prudence, won't you open up your eyes? 


Look around, 'round ('round, 'round, 'round)

('Round, 'round, 'round, 'round, 'round)

Look around, 'round, 'round ('round, 'round)

('Round, 'round, 'round, 'round, 'round)

Look around (ahh) 


Dear Prudence, let me see you smile

Dear Prudence, like a little child 


The clouds will be a daisy chain

So let me see you smile again 


Dear Prudence, won't you let me see you smile? 


Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day 


The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you 


Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play? 



Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney 


___ 

Crandall was uncertain about whether to admit Harris, whom she liked, she consulted her Bible, which, as she told it, came open to Ecclesiastes 4:1:


'So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun:  

and behold the tears of such as were oppressed,  

and they had no comforter; 

 and on the side of their oppressors 

 there was power; but they had no comforter." 



"As word of the school spread, African-American families began arranging enrollment of their daughters in Crandall's academy. 

 On April 1, 1833, twenty African-American girls from Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, and the surrounding areas in Connecticut arrived at Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color. " 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall





Friday, February 02, 2024

Nature Conservancy Fascist Frauds

  

"The Nature Conservancy has ties to many large companies, 

 including those in the oil, gas, mining, chemical and agricultural industries. 

 As of 2016, its board of directors included the retired chairman of Duke Energy, 

 and executives from Merck, 

 HP,  

Google and several financial industry groups. 

 It also has a Business Council which it describes as a consultative forum that includes  

Bank of America, 

 BP America,  

Chevron,  

Coca-Cola,  

Dow Chemical,  

Duke Energy,  

General Mills,  

Royal Dutch Shell,  

and Starbucks. 


The organization faced criticism in 2010 from supporters for its  

refusal to cut ties with BP after the Gulf oil spill." 



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_Conservancy#:~:text=There%20have%20been%20allegations%20of,them%20to%20claim%20tax%20breaks. 




"In 2022, a group of 158 conservation, environmental, and social justice non-profit organizations signed an open letter to the Conservancy's CEO, Jennifer Morris,  

charging that The Nature Conservancy was overly supportive of logging interests and the use of wood products as a natural climate solution. 

 TNC is a member of the Forest Climate Working Group alongside wood product companies like Weyerhauser" 


____ 

 

"1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France 

 as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase 

 for 2.83 cents per acre.


In 1854, after first serving as an area to relocate Native American tribes from the east, the United States organized Kansas Territory.  

In 1861, Kansas was admitted as the 34th U.S. state. The area that today is Elk County was, for a brief period, reserved to the Osage Indians 

 as hunting grounds for buffalo and other game" 




Thursday, February 01, 2024

Once (1976) Melanie Bloodgood

 One moment, once,


in a sun-buzzed room


all the views were delightful.


I and Time were a great balloon


in touch with the walls about us.


Then as if someone had been excused


from a chambered violin's play,


sound abruptly fountained up,


more abrupt yet was snipped away.


Suddenly, too, a light shaft,


crazy as an accident,


rushed down its silk in a slanted stream


to live and breathe on my white sheets


in a pool of moired patterns.


Hands to the birth of a secret universe


I was once one day. 








Elaine, Arkansas massacre, Tulsa Massacre

  Tulsa race massacre

"More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals, and as many as 6,000 black residents of Tulsa were interned in large facilities, many of them for several days.  

The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 dead. 

The 2001 Tulsa Reparations Coalition examination of events identified 39 dead, 26 black and 13 white, based on contemporary autopsy reports, death certificates, and other records. 

 The commission gave several estimates ranging from 75 to 300 dead." 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre 


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The Elaine massacre 

 occurred on September 30–October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas where 

 African Americans were organizing against peonage and abuses in tenant farming. 

 As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. 

 Estimates of deaths made in the immediate aftermath of the Elaine Massacre by eyewitnesses range from 50 to "more than a hundred" 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_massacre 


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Foreman and country peon 

 by Prilidiano Pueyrredón (1823 - 1870)

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Foreman and country peon by Prilidiano Pueyrredón (1823 - 1870)


Peon 


 (English /ˈpiːɒn/ PEE-on, from the Spanish peón Spanish pronunciation: [peˈon]) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: 


 any form of wage labor, 


 financial exploitation, 


 coercive economic practice, 


or policy in which the victim or a laborer (peon)  


has little control over employment 


 or economic conditions.  


Peon and peonage can refer to both the colonial period and post-colonial period of Latin America, 


as well as the period after the end of slavery in the United States, 


 when "Black Codes" were passed to retain African-American freedmen as labor through other means." 




"After the U.S. Civil War, the South passed "Black Codes", laws to control freed black slaves. 

 Vagrancy laws were included in these Black Codes. Homeless or unemployed African Americans who were between jobs, most of whom were former slaves, were arrested and fined as vagrants. 

 Usually lacking the resources to pay the fine, the "vagrant" was sent to county labor or hired out under the convict lease program to a private employer. 

 The authorities also tried to restrict the movement of freedmen between rural areas and cities, to between towns.


Under such laws, local officials arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of people 

and charged them with fines and court costs of their cases. 

 Black freedmen were those most aggressively targeted. Poor whites were also arrested, but usually in much smaller numbers. 

 White merchants, farmers, and business owners were allowed to pay these debts, and the prisoner had to work off the debt.  

Prisoners were leased as laborers to owners and operators of coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations, with the lease revenues for their labor going to the states.  

The lessors were responsible for room and board of the laborers, and frequently abused them 

 with little oversight by the state." 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peon