Saturday & Sundry Pieces of Interest

 Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustration

Why the Democrats Are Also to Blame for Brett Kavanaugh by Joshua Frank at Counterpunch this week:

Snips

If the Democrats cannot cobble together a solidified opposition to Trump’s most egregious policies, why would the Kavanaugh nomination be any different? Instead of drawing up a visionary blueprint that aims to excite a true grassroots movement against the corporate establishment, they continue to shiver in the face of internal upheaval as they have with the recent victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.


The Democrats don’t control the Senate for a reason. They have not galvanized the majority of Americans who oppose the Wall Street takeover of our government and the perpetual wars that prop it up. Why? Because the Democrats don’t actually oppose either. They aren’t inept, Democrats are simply professional defenders of the status-quo................

Remember, this is the same party that demonized Bernie Sanders’ supporters and believed the movement he sparked and the issues he raised were unworthy of recognition.

This is the same party that rubber-stamped the endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, the slaughters in Libya, Yemen, and more. This is the same party that backs Israel’s brutal occupation of Paletine. This is the same party that overwhelmingly backed the PATRIOT Act and the ongoing evisceration of our civil liberties. This is the same party that dismantled the welfare system while increasing corporate welfare. This is the same party that claims to believe in climate change but hasn’t done a damn thing to stop Big Oil. This is the same party that supports the death penalty, mass incarceration and a militarized Police State. This is the same party that claims to support women’s rights in the US but outright ignores the horrible working conditions and abuse their neoliberal policies inflict upon the women, many of them girls, who toil away in sweatshops around the globe in the name of profit.

They will whine that they’ve been steamrolled by Trump and the Republicans, but shed no tears for the Democrats. You can’t be steamrolled if you aren’t even standing in front of the machine that’s about to crush us.

The New Age of Astrology

In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac—even if they don’t exactly believe in it. An interesting piece by Julie Beck in The Atlantic earlier this year.

It begins:

Astrology is a meme, and it’s spreading in that blooming, unfurling way that memes do. On social media, astrologers and astrology meme machines amass tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, people joke about Mercury retrograde, and categorize “the signs as ...” literally anything: cat breeds, Oscar Wilde quotes, Stranger Things characters, types of french fries. In online publications, daily, weekly, and monthly horoscopes, and zodiac-themed listicles flourish.
This isn’t the first moment astrology’s had and it won’t be the last. The practice has been around in various forms for thousands of years. More recently, the New Age movement of the 1960s and ’70s came with a heaping helping of the zodiac.

In the decades between the New Age boom and now, while astrology certainly didn’t go away—you could still regularly find horoscopes in the back pages of magazines—it “went back to being a little bit more in the background,” says Chani Nicholas, an astrologer based in Los Angeles. “Then there’s something that’s happened in the last five years that’s given it an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn’t had for a good 35 years. Millennials have taken it and run with it.”

Lots more at the link!

A recent challenge at Quora brought about many answers, all entertaining: Remove one letter from the name of a TV show or movie. What's the premise of the new show or movie?
Here's one of the first, and more compact answers I stumbled upon, it's by a Quora friend Charlie Anne Excell, who gave her permission for its use on my blog.

I enjoyed the chuckles:

••NOW••SHOWING••

Mad Ma - Crazy mother of a hero takes the car keys, for pimpin' her car again. Gets to bingo quicker tho..

Forrest Gum - Mentally challenged son learns to blow impressive bubbles, which rise & save him after falls off shrimp boat. Mum likes it, she really really likes it…

One With The Wind - Frankly, people not giving a damn about openly farting during their public meditations.

Lord Of The Rigs - Tall hatted magician helps hairy-footed kids, hairy-faced equestrians and pointy-eared models drive an evil semi-trailer smack into a fireplace.

0 Shades Of Grey - Smartass guy and oddball chick sit round knitting, reading the phonebook and yawning. (I know.. I removed a number, not “a letter!” Sheesh, CHILL!, hava cold shower..)

Crocodile Undee - ‘Tables are turned' as U.S. journo chick pervs at reptile wrangler's bum cheeks in U.S. thong undees, as he gratuitously bends to look in water for a croc.


Star War - Basic type space movie. Doubt there'll be a sequel.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Harry Otter; Py Kids; The Leg Movie; SharkNad!; When Harry Et Sally; Fiddler On The Roo; and, Itchcock.