Below is a roundup of news, politics science, and humor. I plan on doing this about once a week as long as people seem interested. I hope you enjoy.
The Greedy Oil Party is starting to get hit again with some major scandals. It will be interesting to see how this changes the shape of the 2014 elections. Progressives can seriously push back against Republican extremism in several states, but to do so, we need to be ready. To be ready we need to put our money and volunteer time to key candidates. You know your local elections best so you best know how to devote your time. But here is my breakdown of the key races to send some money: Please donate to my 2014 ActBlue site.
More news, science and randomness below...
HEALTH, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
Yeah, yeah, yeah...we're used to having record heat already, aren't we? Hottest May on planet earth since we started records in 1880 says NOAA, may signal hottest year ahead
I have been saying this for more than 10 years now: Climate inaction costs, climate action benefits. We're talking trillions in benefits. American NEEDS environmental action for economic reasons!
They have us surrounded: Foot fungus and phone bacteria.
Speaking of fungus, this is the time of year when this article is most important: Dealing with Mold and Mildew in Your Home. Dealing with mold and mildew in your home now may help reduce allergy and asthma later.
Scientific consensus: Widespread impacts of neonicotinoids 'impossible to deny'
And maybe we are finally doing something about it: US sets up honey bee loss task force
Also promising and desperately needed...but it will take a long time for it to be clinically relevant: New way to fight resistant bacteria
POLITICAL NEWS:
Good legal news from Canada: Pivotal ruling by Canada's Supreme Court gives First Nations title to traditional lands
Time to get liberal down South:
Southern Liberals Taking GOP by Surprise from Bold Blue Media on Vimeo.
Charter School violating the Constitution? Heritage Academy In Mesa Must Remove Sectarian And Misleading Books From Curriculum, Church-State Watchdog Says
The balance to the upset defeat of Eric Cantor: Cochran beats back Tea Party rival. My take: so what, big deal. The Greedy Oil Party remains out of touch, anti-American extremists these days.
What's happening in Iraq? Much of the problem stems from mistakes made during the Bush regime: Factors behind the precipitate collapse of Iraq's army
What should we do about Iraq? It sounds to me like Iran has the right idea (or at least SAYS the right things): Iran's President Rouhani says Tehran is ready to help Iraq in its battle against extremist Sunni Islamists, but sending troops is not on the cards
What should we do about Iraq? A good opinion piece: The problem at its core is not just a matter of security, but politics.
The radical right wing is sending threats to the Idaho community where Bowe Bergdahl lives: Bergdahl's hometown flooded with hateful calls, cancels celebration in 'interest of public safety.' This seems insane to me. I suggest we counter this right wing hatred with some patriotic support. Hailey, ID, is raising money for their July 4th celebrations. I suggest we show them that the left can help them with their patriotic celebrations. On their community website, on the left side, is a place you can click to donate to their July 4th celebrations.
HISTORY:
Knowing the nations within our nation: Indians 101: The Great Basin Tribes
June 26th in History: JFK's "Jelly Donut" Moment Made History
On June 26th, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made a historic speech, one that was received with incredible enthusiasm by a crowd that was nervous about JFK because of his record in WW II. Sadly, though, due to right wing Republican lies, many Americans have the wrong idea about this speech. It amazes me the isolated bubble in which right wingers envelope themselves. To them all reality is subject to their ideology and anything that DOESN'T fit has to be discounted or revised to fit.
A BBC News article highlights this.
Talk to a teabagger (if you dare) and you are bound to hear the claim that JFK called himself a jelly donut to the laughter of the Berlin crowd in his famous 1963 speech. That is if they even know where Berlin is.
But reality has almost no resemblance to the teabagger ideology based fantasies. Yet you will hear it over and over again that JFK was laughed at. But he wasn't. The teabagger fantasy, like almost all their ideology, is a lie that they perpetuate not because they have evidence, but their belief in it supports their ideology which in turn supports their belief in an every descending spiral of self-delusion and self-satisfaction.
It is ideological masturbation when you get right down to it.
What was the reality? Something MUCH more impressive and MUCH more interesting.
Here is the speech:
JFK fought in WWII. He fought with great distinction.
Before JFK went to Germany, many Germans, based on JFK's war record in WWII, felt he was anti-German. SO a potentially ANTI-German President of the US of A came to Germany at a time of MAXIMAL tension. A point where Berlin felt that the horrors of 1945 may return in a conflict between West and East.
From the BBC article:
The newspapers had reported that Kennedy didn't like Germany - he had fought in the war and was uneasy about the economic progress the loser of that war was making. Spiegel had a headline: "John F Kennedy doesn't like the Germans".
But Berlin changed that. He was greeted by hundreds of thousands of people.
When JFK visited Berlin, it was a key turning point geographically and historically. The people who saw him were VERY aware, and quite frightened, about how they were the center of history. JFK moved Germany from the enemy of the past to the ally of the future.
It's hard to imagine those pressured times now, but 50 years ago the world was divided into two blocs of East and West, each with an arsenal of nuclear rockets pointed at the other.
The atomic battleground would be Europe, and Berlin was its centre...
And just eight months before the speech, Kennedy had faced down the Soviet leader, Khrushchev, over Soviet missiles in Cuba. There was a real possibility of nuclear war. Fear really was in the air...
Kennedy was well aware of ALL of these dynamics. Whatever his flaws, JFK was SMART and charismatic. He knew what he was doing and he THOUGHT about it.
Into these tense and dangerous times stepped the charismatic Kennedy, young for a leader at 46. He spent four days in Germany but it's the visit to the island of West Berlin on 24 June 1963 which captivated the eyes of the world.
This magnetic leader seemed so different from the dour Konrad Adenauer of Germany or the prim, old-world, patrician Macmillan of Britain or the gracelessness of the brutish Khrushchev.
As the New York Times described it at the time: "Along the route from Tegel airport to the United States mission headquarters in the southwest corner of Berlin, waving, cheering crowds lined every foot of the way.
"The crowds must have nearly equalled the population of the city, but many persons waved once and then sped ahead to greet Mr Kennedy again."
So this is the REALITY. You know, the FACTS. Kennedy, because he had an impressive war record in WWII, was viewed with suspicion by Germany. Germany had evolved since WWII into a focal point of all the world's tensions including the tensions surrounding nuclear war, something that Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed was a very real and current thing. ANY city was a target at that point for a nuclear weapon. Berlin was THE potential Hiroshima of 1963 and was VERY well aware of it. If there was a nuclear ware at that moment, Germany, and Berlin in particular, would be THE target.
JFK's visit was WILDLY popular in Berlin, unlike the teabagger revisionism. And the famous line "Ich bin ein Berliner" was VERY carefully planned and the intention of emphasis (using "ein") was very well conveyed. In Berlin, JFK's message was very clearly understood and VERY well received.
And they erupted at the line which resonated round the world. He had been toying with the phrase for some weeks before. He had discussed it with his main speech writer and with people drafted in to help him with his Boston-drawl German pronunciation, which, it is generally agreed, was pretty poor.
But it was not in the typed transcript of the speech to be delivered - he added it in his own hand. He does seem to have extemporised, going beyond what his advisers had suggested...
Did he, by inserting the word "ein" into "Ich bin Berliner" - the normal, conversational way of saying "I am a Berliner" - unintentionally say he was a jam donut?
This claim has often been made, but Berliners of the human variety will tell you that a jam donut in Berlin is not called a Berliner (though it is in the south of the country), so on the day nobody laughed. And anyway, the added word "ein" can be used here to add emphasis.
The misconception goes
back at least to 1983 when it appeared in a Len Deighton novel. Not sure if that is the origin of it.
A more detailed explanation can be found here: (h/t to serendipityisabitch for inspiring me to look up more details)
Laying decades of misinformation to rest, linguist Jürgen Eichhoff undertook a concise grammatical analysis of Kennedy's statement for the academic journal Monatshefte in 1993. "'Ich bin ein Berliner' is not only correct," Eichhoff concluded, "but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say."
An actual Berliner would say, in proper German, "Ich bin Berliner." But that wouldn't have been the right phrase for Kennedy to use. The addition of the indefinite article "ein" is required, explains Eichhoff, to express a metaphorical identification between subject and predicate, otherwise the speaker could be taken to say he is literally a citizen of Berlin, which was obviously not Kennedy's intention.
So he had carefully crafted his speech to EMPHASIZE his sympathy to Berliners, he said it in a way in which Berliners would understand and reacted to with HUGE enthusiasm.
JFK's speech in Berlin was, according to ANYONE present at the time, an amazing, encouraging, and historic speech. The whole "jelly donut" crap spouted by rabid teabaggers has no historical significance and requires that you assume that all Berliners in attendance were actually from much further South in Germany, something that was NOT the case.
But you will never convince a teabagger. He will insist that he knows German better than any German person.
RANDOMNESS:
Jon Stewart Moment of Zen: CREEPY!
A real moment of Zen: A story about one of the most famous Zen masters ever.
A soldier named Nobushige came to Hakuin, and asked: “Is there really a paradise and a hell?”
“Who are you?” inquired Hakuin.
“I am a samurai, ” the warrior replied.
“You, a soldier!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar.”
Nobushige became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: “So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably much too dull to cut off my head.”
As Nobushige drew his sword Hakuin remarked: “Here open the gates of hell!”
At these words the samurai, perceiving the master’s discipline, sheathed his sword and bowed.
“Here open the gates of paradise,” said Hakuin.
This week's moment of jbou:
This is the 21st century and no one cares. Just go ahead and fart already.
On a related note, this week's moment of Ben Franklin: This is the 18th century...Just go ahead and fart already.
From BBC News: Today's African Proverb:
“Do not abuse midwives while children are still being born”
--A Swahili proverb sent by William Jol Bak Bak, Wau, South Sudan
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION: Going Solar Just Got Easier
From Green America:
Last year was a great year for solar – but the future is looking even brighter in 2014. Did you know that every 4 minutes in America, someone makes the switch to solar? It’s your turn to be a part of the clean energy future and join them.
Helping the environment doesn’t have to mean emptying your pockets. That’s why Green America is partnering with Sungevity to help you go solar. They offer the ability for you to go solar for as little as $0 down with monthly payment options. They are also giving you a $1,000 credit if you go solar this June and will donate $750 to help Green America's green energy work.
Click here to find out how much you could save by going solar with Sungevity.
By starting the solar conversation, you’ll learn how you can save money, protect the planet and take back control of rising energy costs from expensive fossil fuels.
It only takes a minute to find out what going solar could mean for you.
My wife and I buy 100% wind power. I am also looking into rooftop solar for our building. Green energy is available now.
For last week's issue: Mole's Cool News Roundup 10