Lessons from the Playground and the Barnyard

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 10:45 AM PDT

2012/10/04 · 10:45

Yes indeed, it was hard to watch the debate last night. I was right there with everyone else on the sidelines, yelling "get in there and throw a punch", "hit him back", "smash his face". I'm sure that's what Chris Matthews would have said when he was 10 years old. And I don't blame Chris. It's a very human reaction.

But let's go back to that playground for a minute and see what happens next. So the bully takes a punch; does that stop him? No. It just gets uglier; they both look bad and the playground ladies haul them both off to the principal's office.
Does anyone else on the playground understand what they were fighting about any better? Do any of the other kids talk about what started the fight? No.
They just talk about the fight. Who hit harder, Who's nose bled the most.
And who's the winner? Nobody.
The bully's still the bully, the other kid's still just the victim du jour, the rest of the kids still don't know any more about how to defend themselves from the bully than they did before. All they can do is hope that the bully just goes after Big Bird next and doesn't pick on them. But, of course, he will.

OurMissEwenice

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Friday March 30, 2012 · 5:00 AM PDT

2012/03/30 · 05:00

This will be a very short diary with a very pointed question. Does anyone else see what I see and is anyone else as alarmed as I am?

First of all, I want to assure everyone that I have nothing but empathy for Trayvon Martin's family and friends and this diary in no way minimizes the horror and pain that they have been sentenced to for the rest of their lives. The media attention that has finally been given this case may be somewhat instrumental in bringing them some measure of justice, but it can't diminish the sentence.

But as I watched the coverage tonight and in particular the video of Mr. Zimmerman's arrival at the police station just 45 minutes after the police were called, my brain started hearing little alarm bells. All of the reporters and anchors did a great job pointing out all the important frames. And yes, it certainly raises a lot of legal questions.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else terribly wrong. Follow below the squiggle and see if you aren't as frightened as I am.

OurMissEwenice

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Monday November 21, 2011 · 6:15 AM PST

2011/11/21 · 06:15

On Friday I saw an extremely disturbing interview on one of the cable news stations; it doesn't matter which one. It was one of those interviews at the Capital building in Washington D.C. where someone very important comes out to a hallway and stands in front of the big marble columns and his voice kind of echoes off the vaulted ceiling so that you just feel that what he is saying is very earnest and authoritative. It's usually Senator Greenback or Congressman Bullion or some such official and when they're finished, we, the citizens, can go back to our lives, reassured that this senator or congressman, at least, is in there fighting for us. Right.

Well on Friday the interviewee was indeed earnest and authoritative, and the background of imposing columns and solid marble did convey an official import to the discussion.
So, was it Senator Greenback or Congressman Bullion?
No, no.

It was GROVER NORQUIST!!!

Grover Norquist has never been elected so much as dog catcher (mercifully for dogs everywhere) and yet, there he was, pontificating under the dome of the Capital about how all the Republicans will honor their pledges to HIM. They will never vote to raise a single tax!

What the ....

OurMissEwenice

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Thursday November 17, 2011 · 4:37 AM PST

2011/11/17 · 04:37

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that after I published my first diary "Let's Turn Black Friday into Greenback Friday and make the Big Banks Blue" Tuesday, I was a tad disappointed that it didn't immediately rocket to the top of the rec list. I guess we can chalk that up to youth and naivete. And no, I wasn't trying to write a break-out Country & Western song. But, it's all good.

Today's a new day and we have a challenge[[we have a challenge.]] BLACK FRIDAY still looms in front of us, just nine days away. I can't emphasize enough the tension that is building in the retail and banking worlds, even now as we write and read these words. If something goes wrong at the processing centers or in the stores (server problems, too many call offs, bad weather) on Black Friday; to hear them talk, you'd think it was the end of the world as we know it.
It doesn't matter what the circumstances were last year, each year the goals are set higher, way higher. And to not meet those goals, to fall short, way short, is UNTHINKABLE. Perhaps this is a good way to describe our goal.

A show of force, the 99% coming together on the biggest shopping day of the year to show the big, corporate banks and the big, corporate retailers that this is indeed
the end of the world as they've known it.

OurMissEwenice

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Tuesday November 15, 2011 · 12:03 PM PST

2011/11/15 · 12:03

They say timing is everything … and then, once in a while … the stars all align … and there it is … the perfect time, the perfect statement, the perfect opportunity … to make a HUGE, HUGE impact.

What we have looming before us now is the High Holyday of retail banking. It is a day that bankers dream about, a day they anticipate with glee and not a little trepidation; will it be bigger than last year? Will anything go wrong? It is

BLACK FRIDAY.

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Lessons from the Playground and the Barnyard

Compare and Contrast - A Very Disturbing View

Who IS Grover Norquist and Who Put Him in Charge of MY Life

Greenback Friday, the end of the world as they've known it

Let's Turn "Black Friday" into "Greenback Friday" and make the Big Banks Blue