[QUOTE=firejuggler;499543]Free speech?[/QUOTE]You haven't heard? Here in the good old USA, it's been redefined as spending money -- lots and [i]lots[/i] of money -- to give [strike]bribes[/strike] campaign contributions or "favors" not provably connected with any official action, to public officials. It's only available to those who can afford it -- wealthy people ("natural persons") or corporations ("corporate persons").

In short, [i]money[/i] is free speech. And, for most of us -- those of us who don't just count -- money [i]isn't[/i] free, and all it says to [i]us[/i] is, "Goodbye!"

Mayday ... Mayday ... Mayday -Chesley B. Sullenberger III
 

So here is another analogy to depict the state of the US, and in consequence, the state of much rest of the world. Maybe some folks will listen to Sully in the midst of their Foxian® haze. Some of them might even get some of what he is saying.
[QUOTE]I am often told [URL="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/05/new-york-plane-crash-audio-sullenberger"]how calm I sounded[/URL] speaking to passengers, crew and air traffic control during the emergency. In every situation, but especially challenging ones, a leader sets the tone and must create an environment in which all can do their best. [U]You get what you project. Whether it is calm and confidence — or fear, anger and hatred — people will respond in kind.[/U] Courage can be contagious.

Today, tragically, too many people in power are projecting the worst. Many are cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States, our allies and democracy; encouraging extremists at home and emboldening our adversaries abroad; and threatening the [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/03/climate-scientists-are-struggling-find-right-words-very-bad-news/"]livability of our planet[/URL]. Many do not respect the offices they hold; they lack — or disregard — a basic knowledge of history, science and leadership; and they act impulsively, worsening a toxic political environment.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kladner;499614]So here is another analogy to depict the state of the US, and in consequence, the state of much rest of the world. Maybe some folks will listen to Sully in the midst of their Foxian® haze. Some of them might even get some of what he is saying.[/QUOTE]Well, said, Sully! "Cowardly, complicit enablers." They're so bad, they're not even going to Hell. (See [url=https://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=495943&postcount=849=]this post[/url] for an explanation.)

The complete op-ed is [url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-saved-155-lives-on-the-hudson-now-lets-vote-for-leaders-wholl-protect-us-all/2018/10/29/554fd0e6-d87c-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html?noredirect=on]here[/url].

As Veterans day approaches, I think about my late father. His sacrifice during WWII (twice wounded in action in Europe, shipped back to the States after the second time), and the even greater sacrifices of so many of his friends, and many, many others, helped make the US a better country. As in the overturning of [i]Plessy v. Ferguson[/i]. As in the Civil Rights Movement and the increased opportunity for millions that it brought about. As in, a president being foced out of office after abusing his authority.

Thanks, Dad! I'm glad you're not here to see the country you fought for while it seems bent on committing suicide. I know it would make you unutterably sad, possibly drive you to despair, but this is not on you. Rest in peace.

Tomorrow, I will go to vote.

Ah crap! Another missing link. Thanks again, Doc, for correcting the omission, again.
I am glad my father isn't seeing the current political horrors, either. The "Bush Crime Family" kept him worked up enough as it was. He was somewhat contemporaneous with your father. Mine was in the Army Air Corps, as recon group ground crew. Totally non-combatant, though as a Master Sergent, he was issued a Thompson submachinegun He did not talk a lot about it, though later in life he came out with some amazing and amusing tales, including the Tommy gun. The idea of my dad with a Tommy gun blew everyone's minds when I passed it along. In the last year+ I was his primary caregiver, so I heard some of these gems before the rest of the family. Daddy was about as non-violent as they come. When the war ended, the Army wanted him to go Lifer, complete with OCS. He graciously declined.

We mostly heard of him being in N Africa, but eventually also in Italy and France.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;499660]Well, said, Sully! "Cowardly, complicit enablers." They're so bad, they're not even going to Hell. (See [URL="https://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=495943&postcount=849="]this post[/URL] for an explanation.)

The complete op-ed is [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-saved-155-lives-on-the-hudson-now-lets-vote-for-leaders-wholl-protect-us-all/2018/10/29/554fd0e6-d87c-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html?noredirect=on"]here[/URL].

As Veterans day approaches, I think about my late father. His sacrifice during WWII (twice wounded in action in Europe, shipped back to the States after the second time), and the even greater sacrifices of so many of his friends, and many, many others, helped make the US a better country. As in the overturning of [I]Plessy v. Ferguson[/I]. As in the Civil Rights Movement and the increased opportunity for millions that it brought about. As in, a president being foced out of office after abusing his authority.

Thanks, Dad! I'm glad you're not here to see the country you fought for while it seems bent on committing suicide. I know it would make you unutterably sad, possibly drive you to despair, but this is not on you. Rest in peace.

Tomorrow, I will go to vote.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kladner;499675]Ah crap! Another missing link. Thanks again, Doc, for correcting the omission, again.[/QUOTE]Well, I hadn't read the op-ed, so thanks for posting about it.

The following incident mentioned in a program (Good grief! [i]that[/i] long ago?) about POWs held by the Nazis at Colditz castle, [url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2803naziprison.html]NAZI PRISON ESCAPE[/url], may have involved a man "about as nonviolent as they come" who had been issued a weapon (a sidearm, not a tommy gun) by the US Army:[quote][b]NARRATOR:[/b] The U.S. liberators found another more sinister camp in Colditz, a slave labor camp run by the SS. Hundreds of Hungarian Jewish men and women had been marched there from Auschwitz in November 1944. The U.S. troops found a mass grave for over 400 men and women who had been shot, but there were a few survivors among the bodies.

The seriously ill were taken to a medical center.

Kenneth Lockwood had spent almost all the war in Colditz castle, oblivious to what was going on just a few hundred yards away.

[b]KENNETH LOCKWOOD:[/b] They were Hungarian Jews, all intelligentsia. I found this out because the American doctor, a fellow named Rose, was looking after them. He was doing what he could for them, and I simply said to him, "I've got nothing to do, can I be of any help?" And he said, "Well yes," he said...gave me a mug and some water and said, "Now get them to sip this."

Well I never want to see human beings like it again. They were literally skin and bones and nothing else. Their skin was a parchment yellow. And the doctor said, "It is important that they only sip. They mustn't...they mustn't swallow it. And only do it very slowly." Well, I went 'round, and he was doing it as well. We ran out of water. And he had a couple of German soldiers there, who hadn't left the place — most of them had by then — and he told one of them to go and fetch some more water. And the chap refused. He wasn't going to fetch any water for any Jews. And it looked... I thought, "Oh, this is going to be tricky." Anyhow, the doctor ordered him to do it again, and he refused again. And so the doctor produced his revolver and shot him. The other German that was there went and got the water.[/quote]

I'm not holding my breath waiting for any meaningful action on military aid to the Saudis for their proxy war in Yemen, but [url=https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/senate-saudi-arabia-vote]Senate tells [i]Il Duce[/i], "Don't treat us like idiots!"[/url]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;501243]I'm not holding my breath waiting for any meaningful action on military aid to the Saudis for their proxy war in Yemen, but [URL="https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/senate-saudi-arabia-vote"]Senate tells [I]Il Duce[/I], "Don't treat us like idiots!"[/URL][/QUOTE]
Chest pounding and willy waving produced this token vote "for show." I know Sanders is sincere, but this crowded bandwagon will have a short run. It is also short of veto-proof.
Then, we have this wisdom from Sen [STRIKE]Wanker[/STRIKE] Lankford
[QUOTE]Sen. [URL="https://www.rollcall.com/members?31869&utm_source=memberLink?utm_source=memberLink"]James Lankford[/URL] said he was still against cutting off military support because he believed such an action would lead to more civilian casualties in Yemen rather than fewer.[/QUOTE]They sure know how to pick 'em in Oklahoma.

[QUOTE=kladner;501254]<snip>
They sure know how to pick 'em in Oklahoma.[/QUOTE]
Yes, the other Oklahoma Senator, James Inhofe, comes to mind, as does the guy who was elected Oklahoma AG before being appointed head of EPA.

Now, if they just start chorusing that earthquakes caused by fracking are a hoax, maybe the ground in Oklahoma will stop shaking...

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;501271]Yes, the other Oklahoma Senator, James Inhofe, comes to mind, as does the guy who was elected Oklahoma AG before being appointed head of EPA.

Now, if they just start chorusing that earthquakes caused by fracking are a hoax, maybe the ground in Oklahoma will stop shaking...[/QUOTE]
:tu:
I should not sneer too loud or long, being of Texas origin.

The following passage comes from [url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_the_Rev._Jonathan_Swift/Volume_3/The_Examiner]Jonathan Swift, The Examiner, No. XIV. Thursday, November 9, 1710[/url].

Somehow, it brings [i]Il Duce[/i] to mind...
[quote]There is one essential point, wherein a political liar differs from others of the faculty; that he ought to have but a short memory, which is necessary, according to the various occasions he meets with every hour of differing from himself, and swearing to both sides of a contradiction, as he finds the persons disposed with whom he has to deal. In describing the virtues and vices of mankind, it is convenient, upon every article, to have some eminent person in our eye, from whom we copy our description. I have strictly observed this rule; and my imagination this minute represents before me a certain great man[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Wharton,_1st_Duke_of_Wharton][sup]2[/sup][/url] famous for this talent, to the constant practice of which, he owes his twenty years reputation of the most skilful head in England, for the management of nice affairs. The superiority of his genius consists in nothing else, but an inexhaustible fund of political lies, which he plentifully distributes every minute he speaks, and by an unparalleled generosity forgets, and consequently contradicts, the next half hour. He never yet considered, whether any proposition were true or false, but whether it were convenient for the present minute or company, to affirm or deny it; so that if you think fit to refine upon him, by interpreting every thing he says, as we do dreams, by the contrary, you are still to seek, and will find yourself equally deceived whether you believe or not: the only remedy is to suppose, that you have heard some inarticulate sounds, without any meaning at all; and besides, that will take off the horrour you might be apt to conceive at the oaths, wherewith he perpetually tags both ends of every proposition; although at the same time, I think, he cannot with any justice be taxed with perjury, when he invokes God and Christ; because he has often fairly given public notice to the world, that he believes in neither.

Some people may think, that such an accomplishment as this, can be of no great use to the owner, or his party, after it has been often practised and is become notorious; but they are widely mistaken. Few lies carry the inventor's mark, and the most prostitute enemy to truth, may spread a thousand without being known for the author: besides, as the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers: and it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falshood flies, and truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect: like a man, who has thought of a good repartee, when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who has found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.[/quote]

It is and has and shall be depressingly true.

Somewhere, probably in this forum, is a cartoon depicting two desks. Above one desk, with a dozing occupant, is a sign, "Uncomfortable Truths." A long line stretches to the other desk which proclaims "Comforting Lies."