I agree with all of that. On Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 4:25:20 PM UTC-4, archytas wrote: > > I share most of these sentiments Don but probably not the 'solutions'. > I've seen the allocation of money pretty close up and it amounts to little > more than you and me taking the town funds to Vegas for a wild weekend > hoping to come back with a gambling win. We have, of course, just > allocated trillions to the rich that has gone down the drain, just as > regional rehabilitation funds line pockets of cronies in local government > and construction mobs. It's sad and I feel fed up of it too. I don't see > this as racism. > > On Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 9:08:05 PM UTC+1, Don Johnson wrote: >> >> Oh yeah, forgot about the harbor. I'm really just talking about the >> really bad neighborhoods anyway. The kind of neighborhoods you'd have to be >> a junkie or mentally disabiled to actually want to live in. IF they can be >> saved, fine. Using Chicago as a template I don't see that happening. >> Looking at who's in charge over there I don't see that happening. They'll >> get hundreds of millions of State, Federal and Charity dollars and they >> will line their pockets and piss the rest away with fresh paint and >> pinewood shacks. That's the ugly truth. >> >> My brother used to be Director of Radiation Control for the Navy but now >> heads the EPA Dept. He still goes to all the shipyards, including Japan, >> fairly regularly. I know he was over there in Baltimore last week I wonder >> if the riots affected their routine. Actually he was in Kittery last week >> don't know about Baltimore. >> >> Your right about the Moms, Molly. I've been impressed by single black >> moms before. Particularly sports star's moms. 6 or 8 kids and she manages >> to raise decent human being on her own and even one or two that end up >> really excelling. Impressive. The dead beat dads I have a healthy dose of >> contempt for. Some cultures suck. >> >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Molly <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> We have a long way to go with race relations in this country, Don. Our >>> personal feelings are one place to begin because we have complete influence >>> on them. My own are by no means pure, and I've had to flush out much >>> cultural programming over the years. Since it's mother's day, I will say >>> that in every race, barring mental health and addiction issues, mothers >>> want the best for their children including opportunities to succeed given >>> the resources available. I have seen this and lived it. >>> >>> I can't say that Baltimore does not want to be helped. When I was there >>> on business I loved the city and the harbor, but learned little of the >>> politics effecting it now. Because of the navy's presence in the harbor, I >>> imagine that this brings several federal security agencies into town to >>> maintain order, as is also the case in Detroit. I see Baltimore as a city >>> worth saving. And not just because it is in Mary-land. >>> >>> >>> On Saturday, May 9, 2015 at 7:55:54 PM UTC-4, Don Johnson wrote: >>>> >>>> You can't save a town that doesn't want to be saved. If I was king shit >>>> of turd mountain I'd focus on those individuals and families that want to >>>> be saved. I'd get them the hell out of Baltimore and set them up in the >>>> 'burbs somewhere. It's worked before. The rest can burn; I'm fed up. The >>>> same goes with the ME. And Africa. Anywhere oppressed with Sharia law. >>>> Those that want to be saved; come here. Assimilate. >>>> >>>> But no. Pardon moi. I think I just went all bigoted and racist. Live >>>> and let live as they say. I'll just mind my own beeswax. Nothing to see >>>> here. >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 10:08 AM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> We have almost become each other Francis - I used that poem in my >>>>> doctorate and now find myself agreeing everything you say like the worst >>>>> of >>>>> disciples! The rough beast is obvious - I was more impressed by the bit >>>>> about the best lacking all conviction and who now had conviction. The >>>>> German public were voting for parties that would end democracy - Nazis >>>>> and >>>>> Communists - how often do we see that with Muslim Brotherhoods and the >>>>> West's now de facto behind-the-scenes one-unelected-party state. I went >>>>> through a phase of trying to make leadership a key factor, but in the end >>>>> I >>>>> hate the concept for its lack of 'biology', real history and >>>>> anthropology. >>>>> I always think of the septic tank theory of society with the really big >>>>> chunks rising to the top.. >>>>> >>>>> Veblen was writing in the same times. His hope was in technological >>>>> progress matched to human needs and his rough beast the >>>>> business-financial >>>>> control system - I lump the latter as the 'allocation class'. Soddy was >>>>> doing economics too, saying we would be better off with a few good adding >>>>> machines than the banksters. There was much discussion of lytric systems >>>>> - >>>>> the word doesn't google now. Today's talk is in Modern Monetary Theory >>>>> and >>>>> Positive Money and would have relevant application in such as Detroit, >>>>> the >>>>> Middle East and Bolton. Jumping somewhat, Molly's local ideas have much >>>>> merit until one thinks of the rough beast bogeyman of economics and their >>>>> failure almost everywhere for 50 years. Talk of economies coming back is >>>>> rarely true - though I have made such claims in regional economic forums >>>>> to >>>>> get hands on what relief effort (EU grants mostly) was up for grabs. >>>>> Molly >>>>> as Mary is a spokesperson for such an outfit. I worked with people from >>>>> Chicago more than 15 years ago doing much the same. >>>>> >>>>> Positive Money could bring the rough beast of economic externality to >>>>> heel in the local. Such would be an attack on the allocation class >>>>> through >>>>> government by the people. I pronounce this world revolution feeling too >>>>> knackerd to put up a couple of replacement fence panels! Old Boxer feels >>>>> on his way to the glue factory. The scheme sounds rather too like the >>>>> Nazi >>>>> effort for comfort, rather than Soviet Paradise, in economic-social >>>>> terms. >>>>> The first thing one must accept is the current economic system cannot >>>>> work >>>>> for peaceful, stable, reasonably egalitarian outcomes. The idea that it >>>>> can is a myth, held by many, especially Americans, that we can fine tune >>>>> the current system. >>>>> >>>>> There are many voices on positive money, whether they refer to it or >>>>> not directly. Zerohedge has the libertarians, naked capitalism the MMT >>>>> and >>>>> the notion is implied in all social epistemology (Critical Theory etc) >>>>> economic geography and the heterdox economists like Steve Keen. >>>>> Economists >>>>> generally are a dire block to the discussion and I agree with fellow >>>>> scientists that their departments should be closed. I favour bringing a >>>>> much wider form of project based money and learning into operation. >>>>> There >>>>> are some small examples. >>>>> >>>>> The big question is how to do anything under the gaze of the >>>>> Establishment gun. We are, of course, up to our arses in alligators and >>>>> only now thinking of draining the swamp (and hopefully concerned to >>>>> relocate the alligators). If we were able to find a model that worked in >>>>> practice, there is still a history in which we don't transfer it in order >>>>> to maintain beggar they neighbour. Afghanistan is a good example, though >>>>> there are many. Modernisation there has repeatedly been kiboshed by the >>>>> West since the 1920's, even to power systems on the Hellmand river >>>>> raising >>>>> salt into the agricultural land leaving it fit for poppy growing. >>>>> >>>>> My guess is the technical doing isn't that hard. >>>>> >>>>> On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 2:13:57 PM UTC+1, frantheman wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; >>>>>> Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, >>>>>> The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere >>>>>> The ceremony of innocence is drowned;, >>>>>> The best lack all conviction, while the worst >>>>>> Are full of passionate intensity. >>>>>> >>>>>> Yeats' "Second Coming" is nearly 100 years old now, written in the >>>>>> immediate aftermath of WWI and in the middle of a six year convulsive >>>>>> period (1916-1922) which led to Irish independence. I've read somewhere >>>>>> that it's one of the most quoted poems in the English language - the >>>>>> "rough >>>>>> beast [...] slouching towards Bethlehem to be born" seems to ring all >>>>>> kinds >>>>>> of bells. Reading your latest post, Neil, brought the first verse >>>>>> immediately to my mind. >>>>>> >>>>>> Even data has problems; what data do you collect (though this problem >>>>>> is solved if you collect everything about everything, which is now the >>>>>> normal digital standard, from Google to the NSA), more importantly, what >>>>>> criterea do you use to sort it - or, put more contemporarily, what >>>>>> algorithms do you use to mine it? >>>>>> >>>>>> To quote another fellow Irishman, Oscar Wilde has a character in >>>>>> "Earnest" observe; "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." In our >>>>>> fractured post-modernist realities, truth has become irrelevant. You >>>>>> have >>>>>> your truth, I have mine, the Salafist living across the road from me has >>>>>> another, the neo-Nazi down the street yet another. In the social media >>>>>> the >>>>>> extremists from both sides shout without listening and any nuanced and >>>>>> more >>>>>> complex analysis is, at best, ignored, more frequently instrumentalised >>>>>> by >>>>>> the one or other extreme. >>>>>> >>>>>> The recent British election campaign has shown that neither of the >>>>>> putative Prime Ministers wants to say anything real about any serious >>>>>> issue, for fear of alienating potential supporters. They've both been >>>>>> trying to learn from the doyenne of no-speak, Angela Merkel here in >>>>>> Germany, whose only principle is to say as little as possible while, at >>>>>> the >>>>>> same time, mastering the art of producing anodyne balm for the insecure, >>>>>> self-righteous petit bourgeois soul of the German majority. >>>>>> >>>>>> The first season of The Wire (in my view one of the best series TV >>>>>> has ever produced) will be 13 years old next month. One of the >>>>>> frightening >>>>>> things about Baltimore is that the city and US society seem to have >>>>>> learned >>>>>> exactly nothing from David Simon's work. >>>>>> >>>>>> "Il faut cultiver notre jardin," Voltaire's Candide increasingly >>>>>> seems to me to have got it right. As you say, the temptation to retreat >>>>>> to >>>>>> an ivory tower, having secured - as far as possible - the necessities of >>>>>> basic living, is almost overwhelming. >>>>>> >>>>>> And yet ... and yet ... >>>>>> >>>>>> Maybe all we can do is just not give up, try to cultivate decency and >>>>>> humanity and openness and listening to each other in our own lives and >>>>>> in >>>>>> the small islands of dignity we can discover in our ordinary lives. And >>>>>> protest in our own little ways against the lies, and >>>>>> oversimplifications, >>>>>> and hypocrisy, and bigotry. Shout out. And howl ... >>>>>> >>>>>> I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, >>>>>> starving hysterical naked, >>>>>> dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for >>>>>> an angry fix, >>>>>> angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection >>>>>> to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night ... >>>>>> >>>>>> Am Montag, 4. Mai 2015 12:59:15 UTC+2 schrieb Molly: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> The big ongoing news here in the states is the rash of clash between >>>>>>> demonstrators and police. The demonstrations are (supposedly) brought >>>>>>> on by >>>>>>> the ever growing voice against the use of excessive force by police. It >>>>>>> is >>>>>>> such a complex issue, and the demonstrations themselves are not a >>>>>>> simple >>>>>>> problem. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Since living in Detroit I've heard many storied about how the riots >>>>>>> of 1967 altered the course of history for the city, and changed >>>>>>> individual >>>>>>> lives forever. Most recently, I cried like a baby listening to the >>>>>>> eulogy >>>>>>> of a fine man given my his loving wife, my friend. He was a catholic >>>>>>> priest >>>>>>> at the time, and she a Detroit resident. He left the priesthood >>>>>>> afterward >>>>>>> and they married a couple of years later. There were over 40 priests at >>>>>>> the >>>>>>> services, three from Rome officiated the funeral mass. This guy was on >>>>>>> the >>>>>>> fast track to Cardinal when the riots shook his very core and changed >>>>>>> his >>>>>>> value system forever. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> It gets me thinking about the very nature of the waves of >>>>>>> demonstrations. In the sixties, of course, they were spurred by civil >>>>>>> rights issues, Then the war in Vietnam (four dead in Ohio). Now it >>>>>>> seems, >>>>>>> in the age of transparency, the relationship between law enforcement >>>>>>> and >>>>>>> the criminals they deter (treatment during the time of arrest.) >>>>>>> Complicated >>>>>>> and exacerbated by the new "protest for hire" gang, the same well >>>>>>> funded >>>>>>> group that travels the US heightening racial tension (Al Sharpton, >>>>>>> Jessie >>>>>>> Jackson.) Baltimore's riots had a big gang problem that hasn't been >>>>>>> seen >>>>>>> yet, the street gangs hoping on board in an organized way to conduct >>>>>>> criminal activity in the chaos. Something's gotta give. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Certainly, the police methods employed in some metropolitan cities >>>>>>> should be eliminated and cleaned up. But the police have to be able to >>>>>>> defend themselves and do their job (which should be protecting and >>>>>>> serving >>>>>>> the public.) Where any of that goes off the rail is where it gets murky. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> When we can't have civil unrest without it being corrupted by monied >>>>>>> interests looking to make things worse, there is little hope for >>>>>>> societal >>>>>>> change. This may be the reason for the current chaos. Follow the money. >>>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>> >>>>> --- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>> >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >>
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