Corvids & Congressmen~

Thank you Cindy! I adore all the corvidae, but especially blue jays. As glad as I am for federal bird protection laws, I still wish I could have a pet jay. Not in a cage, just a hand raised rescue (all my pets have always been rescue animals, as I don’t believe you can own or buy a living being) who could come and go freely but would know me and always know where to get free food and good music and conversation;-). Parrots are brilliant too but I’m scared to let them fly free because they aren’t from around here. (Tho I’ve heard stories of the legendary cockatiel colony of Redington Beach, FL. I’d love to find a photograph that if it really exists!) My cockatiel used to mimic other birds just like jays do, which made the jays curious. They would sit on a branch right outside his cage and converse. He passed away years ago sadly, but two days ago a bird outside repeated his personal call out of the blue-probably a jay;-)

Blue Jays (California Coastal Scrub Jays) are smart birds and they are handsome birds, and I get the feeling they know both these things about themselves, and even more I get the feeling they are none too impressed with us humans. It’s kinda the way they look at us (see above) and scold us (see below). I always suspect they are correct when they scold me as I surely am doing something annoying.

There is at least one human being who I am certain is smarter than a Blue Jay and that is Mark Twain. So check out what he had to say on the subject…..

“You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure – because he’s got feathers on him, and don’t belong to no church, perhaps; but otherwise he is just as much a human as you be. And I’ll tell you…

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Russia-EU Gas Pipeline Explosion and Foreign Mercenary Cover-Up in Ukraine

Thank you Lada. This is so overwhelming and sad.
The people-regular people who live there not the orchestrators of all this- are going through so much all for greedy manipulation by people who really should know better. I’m keeping them in my prayers. And all of us too really because how much more of this global disruption and misery will it take before a coalition of sane nations aligns together against the instigators?
Do you see any positive signs? Or did you already discuss more of that in a post I may have missed?

Futurist Trendcast

Urgent Breaking News! Russia-EU gas transit pipeline explodes near #Poltava, #Ukraine. This pipeline is called Уренгой-Помары-Ужгород: Urengoy-Pomari-Uzhgorod. This is the main pipeline to Europe.

#Kiev government blames it on terrorists. Apparently those same terrorists created as a result of their inflammatory statements, history book lies, and support of the Ukraine criminal government by the US and EU.

New breaking info added! Interview with Vladimir Rogov, a politician and activist from Zaporozhie: he says that the Kiev junta plan is to have several explosions in different sections of the Urengoy-Pomari-Uzhgorod pipeline, which goes through central and western Ukraine. This is a planned sabotage of the gas flow to Europe. According to Rogov, this was done following direct US orders. The main goal is to sabotage Russian gas supplies to EU, thus inflicting maximum damage on Russian and EU economies.

Unrelated, but also interesting: Rogov talks about recent downing in Donbass of the…

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Rising Call: No Strikes. No Troops. No War in Iraq. | Common Dreams

Rising Call: No Strikes. No Troops. No War in Iraq. | Common Dreams.

Truthout Daily Digest Tuesday, 17 June 2014

The US Chemical Safety Board’s Turmoil Is Playing With Public Safety

Dina Rasor, Truthout: Political infighting and manipulation by board members at the US Chemical Safety Board, the government agency tasked with investigating chemical accidents and offering recommendations to prevent future disasters, has delayed official reports and put public safety at risk.

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DC Is a Revolving Door of Money, Media, Power and Vanity: A Requiem for Democracy

Mark Leibovich, Penguin Books: From the first line, THIS TOWN captures the interrelationship of media, power, money and celebrity status that characterizes the bubble of DC. The funeral of Tim Russert described in the prologue and first chapter as something akin to the spectacle of a papal death mass is an ideal starting point.

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Beyond Drones and Stop-and-Frisk

Aaron Cantú, Truthout: Out goes stop-and-frisk, in come the drones: NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton seems incapable of emerging from the broken windows mindset now described as “predictive policing” and which depends on dignity-destroying invasions of the spaces of poor people of color.

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The Grey Area

Anne Elizabeth Moore and Leela Corman, Truthout: What is “trafficking?” And what exactly do anti-sex trafficking NGOs do? Do they support the autonomy and agency of former sex workers or seek to place them right back in the precarious and oppressive garment industry they often sought to escape in the first place?

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Green Groups Endorse Empty EPA Carbon Emissions Regulation

Ken Ward, Truthout: Environmentalists understand that the only course of action with a shot at averting cataclysm must be immediate, drastic and global. Yet why did they not reject the flaccid EPA carbon emissions regulation proposals as too little, too late?

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The NRA’s “Look, but Don’t Touch” Approach Is a Real Killer

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: Despite tragedies like Newtown, and the hundreds of other shootings that involve children each year, the NRA continues to insist that children and guns go great together. For years, the NRA has been working with gun manufacturers to promote guns to children.

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Presbyterian Divestment: Contesting Representations of “the Jewish Community”

Robert Naiman, Truthout: While Presbyterians decide whether they will divest from companies involved in the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine, they must remember that many members of the Jewish community support divestment.

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Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You

Lois Beckett, ProPublica: Consumer data companies are scooping up huge amounts of consumer information about people around the world and selling it, providing marketers details about whether you’re pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you drive. Yet many people still don’t know data brokers exist.

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Sixteen for ’16 – Number 12: Federalize Abortion

Salvatore Babones, Truthout: The United States needs one law on abortion, not 50 or 500. The balance between a woman’s right to an abortion and society’s interest in her fetus should not depend on where a woman happens to live, work or seek health care.

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Paul Krugman | Saving the Planet Won’t Kill the Economy

Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: Emissions reflect choices – choices about what to consume and how to produce it, choices about which of a number of energy technologies to use. These choices are, in turn, strongly affected by incentives: change the incentives and you can greatly change the quantity of emissions associated with a given amount of real GDP.

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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Strong Hurricanes Developing Earlier Than Usual, and More

In today‘s On the News segment: For the first time since record-keeping began, two Category 4 hurricanes have developed in the Eastern Pacific Basin before July 1; the state of Illinois is working to protect their waterways; as global temperatures rise, more people around the world are switching on their air conditioners, and it turns out they’re creating a vicious cycle; and more.

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How to Forgive Your Torturer

Ariel Dorfman, TomDispatch: Eric Lomax, a British officer in World War II, had been tortured by the Japanese in Thailand while working on the infamous Bangkok-Burma railroad. Eric, like so many victims of atrocities, was plagued by the experience, his life destroyed by his memories and the desire for revenge. His story is more relevant today than ever.

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Dave Zirin on the World Cup You Won’t See on TV: Protests, Tear Gas, Displaced Favela Residents

Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now!: In a video taken by the Associated Press on Sunday, a police officer can be seen firing what appears to be a live pistol round at anti-World Cup protesters near Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã soccer stadium. Police have reportedly also used tear gas, rubber bullets and noise bombs to disperse demonstrators.

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BuzzFlash The Iraq War Was Launched to Own the Country, Not to Liberate It Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: Liberation and democracy as applied to nations such as Iraq – which is in the geopolitical center of a region that is crucial to fueling US empire – are euphemisms for modern colonial ownership through military power. Read the BuzzFlash Commentary George Will, You Are the Reason I Did Not Report My Rape (Note: Trigger Warning) Read the Article at Democratic Underground GOP Iraq Hypocrisy Hits Overdrive Read the Article at The Daily Beast Obama Administration Takes First Step Toward Selling Offshore Gas and Oil Leases Read the Article at BuzzFlash Meet the Family Behind Hobby Lobby, and Their Plans for a Christian Nation Read the Article at Daily Kos Walmart’s “Sham Transaction”: How Giant Corporations Are Quietly Dodging US Taxes Read the Article at Salon Five Strategies to Stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline From Being Built Read the Article at The Council of Canadians The Neocon Travel Agency Is Open for Business Read the Article at Newsvandal