Aurora Goddess Sparkle

Tiina Tormanen photos from this article

I can't believe I know of someone that is going to view the northern lights like this

I hope they get the Aurora Alarm

Walking in a winter wonderland

Later on
we'll conspire
as we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
the plans that we've made

Fa La La La LA!

Deck the hall with boughs of holly,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
''Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Troul the ancient Christmas carol,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

See the flowing bowl before us,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Follow me in merry measure,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
While I sing of beauty's treasure,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

Fast away the old year passes,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses!
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Laughing, quaffing all together,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

xoxo

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay

From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

'Tis the Treason?

I don't know him, he contacted me and was so nice, my daughter vacations with his girlfriend.  Liar.

"I think he's [Trump] got a surprise or two that you're going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I'm talking about some pretty big surprises. ...We're not going to go down and certainly won't stop fighting. We've got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this around," (2016)

"we'll win at something later and [Russia] won't be opposed to what we're doing" (2014)


Article 3, section 3:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.”

I have to take a break, I'm on mantras and chamomile, I'm wearing all the protective stones and crystals I own, I'm huffing lavender.  I'm gonna let Joe Biden take care of it for now.  He manages to smile still.

I gotta little something up my sleeve too and I hope I get a Christmas wish.  

Gojira Tree!

Me on the weekend

In other news...

the season of the bloody knuckle is here

This is what it's coming to?

Fuck you Trumpsters and Putinis:

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today:

1. Do not obey in advance.

Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution.

Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.

3. Recall professional ethics.

When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.

4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words.

Look out for the expansive use of “terrorism” and “extremism.” Be alive to the fatal notions of “exception” and “emergency.” Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.

When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don’t fall for it.

6. Be kind to our language.

Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don’t use the internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.

7. Stand out.

Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

8. Believe in truth.

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

9. Investigate.

Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.

10. Practice corporeal politics.

Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

11. Make eye contact and small talk.

This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

12. Take responsibility for the face of the world.

Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

13. Hinder the one-party state.

The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.

14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can.

Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.

15. Establish a private life.

Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.

16. Learn from others in other countries.

Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Watch out for the paramilitaries.

When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.

18. Be reflective if you must be armed.

If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.)

19. Be as courageous as you can.

If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.

20. Be a patriot.

The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.

I’m not in FB. The scholarly gentleman who directed me to this article and requested I circulate it, given the author’s December 1 permission, added:

For more in this vein, see Autocracy:  Rules for Survival, and The Way to Stop Trump, the latter by Georgetown law professor David Cole;  both in the same periodical.  Cole concludes:  "We live in a constitutional democracy, one that is expressly designed to check the impulses of dangerous men. It will do so if and only if we insist on it."

NOTE:TURNS OUT A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VERSION WAS PUBLISHED IN DK Nov.29 BUT LITTLE NOTICED.PLEASE REC IT http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/29/1605260/-History-professor-s-20-point-guide-to-defending-democracy-under-a-Trump-presidency

Have you no sense of decency, sir?

No President or President-elect in history has ever before publicly condemned individual citizens for criticizing him. That occurs in two-bit dictatorships intent on stamping out dissent.

No President or President-elect has ever before bypassed the media and spoken directly to large numbers of his followers in order to disparage individual citizens who criticize him. That occurred in the fascist rallies of the 1930s.

America came closest to this in the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy wrecked the lives of thousands of American citizens whom he arbitrarily and carelessly claimed were communists.

McCarthy’s reign of terror ended when a single man asked him publicly, during the televised hearings McCarthy was conducting, “have you no decency, sir?” In that moment, Americans began to see McCarthy for the tyrant he was.

from Robert Reich in Alternet

Wake the Elf Up!

WATCH FOR TROLLS

Harry Belafonte, you are a treasure

HARRY BELAFONTE: I must admit that I had far more commitment to the belief that in the final analysis, no matter how extreme things might be in America, that eventually our citizens would rise up and righteously stop the enemy at the gate, if not in fact put them in retreat. And each time certain events took place, we met the horror and the terror of not only what I referenced before—to some, I noticed when I mentioned the Fourth Reich, wasn’t quite sure what I was talking about. Just for clarity, as you know, the last great global torment was the Nazi era. It was called the Third Reich. And I thought that we had thoroughly cleansed ourself of that encounter and that we would be much more resilient. But I think, to a degree, we do reveal some resilience, but the real test has not yet come, until the inaugural transference has taken place. And what concerns me is that, beyond the mischief of Trump and all those in his Cabinet and the people that he’s appointed into roles of leadership, I had never quite understood that we had another severe, unattended enemy in our midst. And that was our species’ commitment or weakness in the face of absolute greed. And I think we have failed to come to certain solid conclusions, because we have been so contaminated with possessions and power that we have forgotten that we have destroyed our children, or set the tone for that. I would welcome Professor Chomsky’s point of view, and I hope he says something that will make me dance out of here.

from here

Feel better, First Man on the Moon

Well, damn...RIP Moon Man.

Dear

Merry Fuckin Christmas DTbag

http://fionaapplerocks.tumblr.com/post/154048464562

https://tmblr.co/Z8HSby2FU0GQo

Thank you Christopher Suprun

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html?_r=0

It's gonna bring you down! HA!

this is news I like!

wtf?

Trump said, before musing on the rest of his cabinet "Greatest killers you've ever seen -- it's time."


It's time to start killing?  What the fuck is going on here?  News as usual.  I would love to see video footage of this.  

Facts are not open to interpretation

“One thing that’s been interesting this entire campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts. They’re not really facts,” Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes said on “The Diane Rehm Show” on NPR. “It’s kind of like looking at ratings or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts.”

Definition of fact

1. 1:  a thing done: asa obsolete :  featb :  crime fact

>c archaic :  action

2archaic :  performance, doing

3:  the quality of being actual :  actuality fact

 hinges on evidence>

4a :  something that has actual existence fact

>b :  an actual occurrence fact of damage>

5:  a piece of information presented as having objective reality

in fact

1. :  in truth

My sentiments

“We will build our future without advice from anyone else,” said Putin

So will we, so butt the fuck out.  
What do you want?  Your picture everywhere?
Are you intentionally destabilizing Europe with the influx of Syrian refugees?  
Are you meddling with other countries elections?
You certainly have a finger in the USA.
We haven't endured the depressing, demoralizing history that Russians have been burdened with, we won't go lightly.
Back off.

I always think of this when I drink chamomile tea

Hmmm, this one is called, The DTs.  DT nightmare?  Yep, apt:

heigh ho

I'm still a quivering anxious mess over our future.  I took a trip down south and saw Trump signs and Confederate flags scattered here and there, but mostly I got to enjoy the scenery and pretend that nothing is happening.

Today I will do what Google says and celebrate Louisa May Alcott's 184th birthday.  Here are some cool quotes of hers:

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.

Love is a great beautifier.

Housekeeping ain't no joke.

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.

National day of Mourning

THIS IS NOT NORMAL. 

Highlight it. Underline it. Put it where you can see it. 

Repeat it to yourself during your shower.

Say it between every sip of coffee.

Shout it at the news on the radio as you commute to and from work.

Write it on a Post-It note and stick it to your dashboard, your desk, your bathroom mirror, and your bedside table. 

Write it on the check when you sign for your credit card payment at the restaurant where you have your lunch. 

Put it on a button and pin it to your shirt. 

Mutter it as a prayer before you go to bed. 

Never allow yourself to get complacent. Never allow yourself to just go with the flow or go along to get along. This is not normal. 

Don’t get over it. 

from Killer of Sacred Cows

The first Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it was nothing like our Thanksgiving today. On that day the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed such a “Thanksgiving” to celebrate the safe return of a band of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians - men, women and children - all murdered.

This day is still remembered today, 373 years later. No, it’s been long forgotten by white people, by European Christians. But it is still fresh in the mind of many Indians. A group calling themselves the United American Indians of New England meet each year at Plymouth Rock on Cole’s Hill for what they say is a Day of Mourning. They gather at the feet of a stature of Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag to remember the long gone Pequot. They do not call it Thanksgiving. There is no football game afterward.

Richard Greener, Huffpost 11.25.2010

http://www.uaine.org/

Things Steven Bannon said

"Darkness is good," says Bannon, who amid the suits surrounding him at Trump Tower, looks like a graduate student in his T-shirt, open button-down and tatty blue blazer — albeit a 62-year-old graduate student. "Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power..."  

"Like [Andrew] Jackson's populism, we're going to build an entirely new political movement," he says. "It's everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I'm the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it's the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Ship yards, iron works, get them all jacked up. We're just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement."

Hollywood Reporter article


1930s USA was enduring the "exciting" time of the Great Depression, so are you talking about the 1930s in Germany, Steve Bannon?  Fuck you Nazi.

Or did you mean 1830s?  I noted your Andrew Jackson reference too:

Jackson strengthened himself against Congress by forging direct links with the voters. His official messages, though delivered to Congress, spoke in plain and powerful language to the people at large. Reversing a tradition of executive deference to legislative supremacy, Jackson boldly cast himself as the people's tribune, their sole defender against special interests and their minions in Congress. In other ways, too, Jackson expanded the scope of presidential authority. He dominated his cabinet, forcing out members who would not execute his commands. In two terms he went through four secretaries of state and five secretaries of the treasury. Holding his official subordinates at arm's length, Jackson devised and implemented his policies through a private coterie of advisers and publicists known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." His bold initiatives and domineering style caused opponents to call him King Andrew, and to take the name of Whigs to signify their opposition to executive tyranny.


Jackson's drive for party organization was spurred by his own difficulties with Congress. Unlike other famously strong Presidents, Jackson defined himself not by enacting a legislative program but by thwarting one. In eight years, Congress passed only one major law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, at his behest.

To detractors [Jackson] appears an incipient tyrant, the closest we have yet come to an American Caesar.

good sign?

There was a rainbow in the sky this morning.  As I followed the lines from the horizon, the visible rainbow ended at the American Flag outside my work.  I'm embracing this as a sign that we will be okay.  It doesn't mean I'm not going to call my government employees or that I'm going to take a Rip Van Winkle. It just means that today I'm going to let my muscles relax, calm my anxieties and enjoy my time with my family on our road trip to the south of the good ole US of A.

Celebrate the water protectors

Our media is not reporting the facts on recent police brutality at Standing Rock.  This article reminded me.  I stand with the water protectors at Standing Rock.  Do not let the black snake go underground.  We must protect our life force.  I am a water protector too.

President Bizness

Consider these items from Mark Sumner's, DailyKos article:

Donald Trump is involved in over 500 companies. It’s an absurd number, one that is generated by Trump’s tendency to encapsulate every business deal behind a new entity. It makes Trump’s relationships—both within the United States and beyond—intentionally difficult to track. 

[The developers of Trump Tower Pune in India] have already visited the United States since the election to meet with the President-elect and plan how they can best take advantage of Trump’s increased brand-visibility. 


Lego Movie was spot on:

President-elect Twit

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world.Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!

8:14 PM - 21 Nov 2016

Well, show us your tax returns.  Our Jimmy Carter had to sell his beloved peanut farm.  Sell your shit and escort your children/business partners out of our White House.  You don't want to follow the rules, but you want your rules to be followed.  This is typical, spoiled brat dictator bullshit.  It has to stop.  The men and women who have been chosen by the government of the people to be our voice need to speak out against this and a whole slew of other things:

Racism

Sexism

Election Fraud

Russian influence

Cabinet elections

Conflicts of interest 

Nepotism

Kleptocracy

Fascism

Dictatorship

STOP THIS NOW

Disturbing article

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/election-reflection-white-anger-racial-violence-economic-despair-and-worst-yet-come

Strange. Red.

I'm so glad other people are able to adequately explain how I feel, since I have temporarily (hopefully) succumbed to "the dumbing".

Let’s call this PTSD post-Trump stress disorder, triggered by the election, to the most powerful office in the world, of a man who’s espoused wholesale exclusion of Muslim immigrants, deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, repealing Roe v. Wade, abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, and encouraging Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear weapons, among other polarizing proposals. While post-Trump stress in no way equals the level of trauma experienced by combat veterans in Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam, this is an experience shared by tens of millions of Americans right now. 
--Jeff Gillenkirk, Alternet


Dear people that love me,
See the red?  I am not unhinged.  You should be seeing red too.
Love,
A person that loves you

Bravo Rep. Ruben Gallego! Thank you.

Vote Notes

Here is some information about the current state of how our votes, our official voice, is being handled and how exiting polls are helpful in determining voter fraud.  Red and Blue shifts, Hacking, Corporate owned voting machines and ballot boxes, auditing equipment turned off, votes being destroyed before the normal destruction date...

Excerpts from:  Can we count election results... by Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet

Covertly, there was not just the open question of whether Russia would hack into election computer systems—voter rolls is one system, vote counting machinery another—but some real evidence that it might have happened in North Carolina.
What people heard about were scrambled voter registration database files in Democratic stronghold counties. What they didn’t hear about but what alarmed some computer scientists who track voting machinery, was the vendor that maintains North Carolina’s voter files was in all probability the “unnamed” Florida-based company hacked by the Russians. You can be sure nobody is quarantining those computer systems for immediate examination by computer security experts.
Jonathon Simons ...calls this one-way pattern the “red shift.” The bottom line, he said, is that both data sets—the exit polls released in real time on Tuesday, not “adjusted” later on to match the vote count, and reported results from election officials—cannot be reconciled. One has to be wrong, which raises questions about the polling, the machinery’s accuracy or vote count tampering. But without a transparent vote-counting process, people with questions run into a brick wall.
“We call a shift towards Republicans a 'red shift,' and a shift toward Democratic candidates a 'blue shift.' We are seeing no blue shifts in this election,” Simon wrote Friday. “This is a familiar pattern, indicative of electronic rigging, but in this case even more dramatic than usual.”
“With all that has been said and written about the vulnerability of the computers that count our votes in secret, one must ask why these votes and states shifted?” he continued. “And why the outcome-changing results are simply accepted as accurate and honest. There is every reason to investigate and then recount key states by hand where possible. This is too often not possible, because some of these results come from paperless, touchscreen computers. And even where possible, with optical scanners, it is just not done.”

Excerpts from a Steven Rosenfeld Interview with Jonathon Simon

SR: Let's go through this piece by piece, because it's a lot for people to really understand. You get the raw state-by-state exit polls that are commissioned by a big consortium of national media organizations. What did you find this year, that happened this week? What do you see in the raw data?JS: Of course, we don't get the raw data. The raw data would be... we have three definitions here. There's raw data, which is the actual questionnaires and the simple numerical toning up of answers on the questionnaire. That is never publicly released. It's if you want to characterize it as such, it's what's inside the sausage of exit polls, and we are not privileged to see that. I've had one opportunity in my life through an inside source to actually look at some of the raw data, but that's a very rare thing. It's not generally accessible to the public. Many of us have clambered for the public release of that raw data, certainly in the aftermath of the 2004 election and have been denied it.
just in this particular election, they bought machines in Ohio that had a feature in them that was basically capable of self auditing. It was a security feature. The Republican secretary of state of Ohio allowed the counties to switch off that feature. You have to ask why. You bought it and it had that feature. They said, Well, it would create chaos. You look at things like that and say hmm. You scratch your head and say, what is going on here? What may be happening in that darkness of cyberspace that the exit polls are giving us a pretty good hint about, but the vote counting system itself completely conceals?

The fact is, we are denied, when I saw we, the candidates, the public, very often election administrators, by the rules of their states, are denied access to the actual hard evidence we call it, that would allow a determination of whether the election has been accurately counted or perhaps has been illegitimately counted and manipulated. As a matter of fact, in quite a few states and usually under Republican control, but the Democrats have not been tremendously cooperative about this either. The trend has been for ballots to be removed from public record status so that they are no longer susceptible to four-year requests and similar public information requests, Freedom of Information Act requests. They are getting less transparent, not more so.

What we're left with is a system that was accepted more or less without real proof.
If that's what democracy is worth to us, then we deserve what we get. Democracy requires support. It requires citizen support. It requires an investment of care and an investment of vigilance and an investment of participation more than deciding, Yeah, I'm going to vote or I'm not going to vote. It requires the fulfillment of a duty to be part of the public that counts and observe the counting of the votes so we don't have the ludicrous situation where we hand our ballots to a magician who takes them behind a curtain, you hear them shred the ballots, comes out and tells you so-and-so won. This is what we've got now and it's what we've accepted. We spend more money in two weeks in Iraq then would cost us for 30 years to hand-count our elections.