Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
We welcome links to your writings here on dkos or elsewhere, posts of pictures, music, news, etc.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
|
Good Morning!
|
Drop in
any time
day or night
to say hello.
|
|
|
from Hard Rain
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
~by Bob Dylan
|
|
|
Little boy blue, photo taken by his dad
|
|
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
News
**Breaking:
Anonymous addresses the police brutality in Québec.
New York Times in a 6 page report reveals that since 2008, Shell's 36 lobbyists undertook nonstop lobbying in order to get the permit to drill in the arctic.
2008 = $ 4.5 million
2009 = $10.2 million
2010 = $10.4 million
2011 = $14.8 million
Government agencies, such as the EPA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The Coast Guard, Natural Resources Defense Council all warned against drilling in the arctic. In the end they couldn't stop it.
New and Frozen Frontier Awaits Offshore Oil Drilling
"Those oil guys can think whatever they want, but we know how harsh this ocean is. They don’t know what they are getting into.” - Roy Nageak, 60, a whaling captain from Alaska’s North Slope, where temperatures can reach 50 below zero.
The president’s preoccupation with the Arctic proposal, even as the nation was still reeling from the BP spill, was the first hint that Shell’s audacious plan to drill in waters previously considered untouchable had gone from improbable to inevitable.
Mr. Obama took office under the watchful gaze of environmentalists who had supported him and an oil industry that feared he would rescind its subsidies and push climate change legislation.
ExxonMobil and other major oil companies spent millions of dollars to ensure that such legislation never passed.
It's okay for the CIA to leak secrets, even from "the Vault," to Hollywood writers and directors when they are making a movie. But if a US soldier does it he could get 52 years in the brig. Kathryn Bigelow and her writer Mark Boal were in the process of making a film on Osama bin Laden when the real bin Laden was found in a villa in Pakistan. Hollywood and the US
Mark Boal the writer of "The Hurt Locker" winner of a controversial Academy Award was imbedded with the US Military in 2004.
There is another bin Laden movie coming up "Code Name Geronimo" directed by John Stockwell. It's said they are both vastly different.
Documents provide new insight into Kathryn Bigelow's Bin Laden movie
The access Bigelow and Boal have had to CIA, DOD and other government officials is not unheard of for Hollywood productions. “Battleship” director Peter Berg embedded for a month with Navy SEALs in western Iraq as research for his upcoming SEAL film “Lone Survivor,” and filmmaker Lionel Chetwynd was granted an hour with President Bush for a 2003 movie he wrote for Showtime, “DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.”
Military have a long association with Hollywood, dating back to WWII or possibly before and Rep. Peter King. R-N.Y. knows that. The real concern here is not National Security because I assume that information was given cautiously. The concern is that these films will become propaganda if they are crafted with too much influence from the military and the White House.
The U.S. military's Hollywood connection
Over the decades, the relationship between Hollywood and the military has served the needs of both sides: Filmmakers gain access to equipment, locations, personnel and information that lend their productions authenticity, while the armed forces get some measure of control over how they're depicted.
That's important not just for recruiting but also for guiding the behavior of current troops and appealing to the U.S. taxpayers who foot the bills. Given that less than 1% of the U.S. population is currently serving in the military, entertainment — including movies, TV shows and video games — is key to shaping the public's idea of what it means to be a soldier.
"Hollywood feature films have served as the most significant medium to argue for the military," said Lawrence H. Suid, author of "Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film." "Americans love violence, and war movies provide all that violence without the danger."
But controversy over an upcoming movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden — and how much U.S. officials should assist director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal — has shed light on some of the minefields that must be navigated by real-life warriors and the showbiz engine that seeks to portray them.
Here is a video covering the years before Bradley Manning downloaded those files onto his flash drive telling others he was copying Lady Gaga's songs. He was a "recycled" soldier and he was not considered mentally stable enough to carry a weapon.
Bradley Manning judge warns military prosecutors in WikiLeaks case
The trial will start on 21 September and is expected to last three weeks. It is certain to be closely followed in America and around the world, both by those who see Manning as a traitor to his country and military superiors, and by those who believe he was a hero who is being punished for being a whistleblower.
There is a controversy n the news regarding Wind Farms and Bird Mortality and now Fox News has gotten into the mix to use it as a political weapon. The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is the best place to look for a rational report. It is much more informed and action-based on the issue than the Aubudon Society. It does not oppose wind energy rather it does careful research to find out how we can have both wind energy and less bird mortality. It is possible to support wind energy and also be concerned about the annual 440,000 (Fish and Wildlife figures) bird deaths in the USA alone. There is push back from the wind industry that's to be expected but worse we have propaganda from the anti-wind Oil & Gas interests and from anti-Obama Fox News. Fox has taken a sudden and dramatic interest in birds.
Here's a list of ABC's good news and bad news about birds. It's mostly good news.
Bird News Network Provided by American Bird Conservancy
New Interactive Web Map to Help Reduce Bird Mortality From Wind Development
Using Google Earth as a platform, the map highlights more than 2,000 locations in the United States where birds are likely to be particularly vulnerable to impacts from wind energy development. Key sites are colored either orange or red to indicate their relative importance to birds.
Birds can be impacted by wind power both through direct collisions and by displacement from nesting, foraging, or transit areas. The map addresses both of these issues by identifying both concentrated migratory flight paths and key habitat locations.
The map also provides extensive background data for each location, including details of ownership, habitats, land use, bird species, and conservation issues.
Opinion
Egos and Immorality by Paul Krugman
Congress Pulls Plug on Pell Grants; Thousands of Students Affected
Québec's Student Strike Turning Into a Citizens' Revolt
Quebec protests adopt a Latin flavour
Blog Posts of Interest
The Q on CBC with Jian Gohmeshi(formerly of the band Moxy Fruvous) interviews two great Americans. Listen to podcasts of each of the interviews:
1. Toni Morrison, Pulitzer prize winning writer and academic.
2. Edie Falco, former waitress, award winning actress now in "Nurse Jackie."
The Real News Network: Mark Ruffalo on Fracking
Ruffalo lives in New York but he is concerned with the whole country facing a choice between a "Healthy US vs Corporate Profits." There will be a rally against fracking on June 17th in Columbus OH. If you haven't seen the documentary Gaslands, try to see it. It's on Netflix and iTunes.
Freaky Friday: Special antiwar pre-Memorial Day edition by One Pissed Off Liberal
The Evening Blues -5-25-12 by joe shickspack