I was a member of this site a year or so ago.

WilliamCharles comments on Jul 10, 2019:

Love seeing the support expressed for you here. Keep working the "program" (yours).

Saw a tape of some of the presentation.

WilliamCharles comments on Jul 6, 2019:

Dr. Forrester: What do you *want* from us? We're *evil*. Evil!

Kudos to NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC for not broadcasting Trump's 4th of July military, politically...

WilliamCharles comments on Jul 6, 2019:

Saw a tape of some of the presentation. It was insufferable. His spray tan looks like he forgot to wash his mud pack off, his mediocre delivery is only highlighted by him endlessly waiting after what he considers applause lines, yet he has a look of abject smugness thinking his words somehow profound. He stands there like a little boy chosen to speak at school assembly who didn't think to rise to the occasion, and his facial expressions reminds one of the posturing Mussolini. He's fifty pounds of manure in a five pound sack.

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.

WilliamCharles comments on Jul 3, 2019:

Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it. ~ Richard Feynman

How do you respond when somebody you have never met in person and only exchanged a sentence or two ...

WilliamCharles comments on Jul 1, 2019:

Maybe they admitting they were "on EST."

Grieving the children of Palestine and the dream of Zionism | Jewish Journal

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 30, 2019:

Had it pointed out in PM that @of-the-mountain is still here, he merely blocked me from seeing his posts. I restate my opinion that he is gutless. He comes to my thread to spout his views in a largely abusive manner, and I take the time to respond in a respectful manner, yet he chooses to block me. His cowardice is not surprising. [Update is that he has deactivated his account entirely for the moment] Regardless, I consider it a sign of respect to share my views openly and honestly in this forum. Thoughtful and fact-based rebuttals can get me to concede points and reassess my own views. But I consider it esssential to stand up to bullies. Make whatever assertions you want with as much passion as you want... but be willing to engage. Don't fling your poop and run off. There's enough of that in the world of irrationalists.

Grieving the children of Palestine and the dream of Zionism | Jewish Journal

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 30, 2019:

It looks like @of-the-mountain cut and ran. That means any of our replies to him disappear as well when he deletes his own. This is the kind of cowardice we are dealing with. Chosanistan actually has an army of paid trolls. Sad to say, I think this person was just a useful idiot.

Grieving the children of Palestine and the dream of Zionism | Jewish Journal

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 30, 2019:

"The trick of declaring war against the armed resistance and then attacking the resisters’ unarmed kin as well as the sur­rounding population with the most gruesome products of Death-Science; this trick is not new. American Pioneers were pioneers in this too; they made it standard practice to declare war on indigenous warriors and then to murder and burn villages with only women and children in them. This is already modern war, what we know as war against civilian populations; it has also been called, more candidly, mass murder or genocide. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that the perpetrators of a Pogrom portray themselves as the victims, in the present case as victims of the Holocaust. Herman Melville noticed over a century ago, in his analysis of the metaphysics of Indian-hating, that those who made a full-time profession of hunting and murdering indigenous people of this continent always made themselves appear, even in their own eyes, as the victims of manhunts. The use the Nazis made of the International Jewish Conspiracy is better known: during all the years of atrocities defying belief, the Nazis considered themselves the victimized. It’s as if the experience of being a victim gave exemption from human solidarity, as if it gave special powers, as if it gave a license to kill." Fredy Perlman from his essay, “Anti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom” – http://libcom.org/library/anti-semitism-beirut-program-fredy-perlman

My girl and friends heading to the NYC Pride Parade! Enough rainbow?

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 30, 2019:

♥️ Such a difficult concept for some, that consenting adults are free to love who they love. ♥️

"Democracy Dies in Darkness." <--- the unironic motto of the Washington Post.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 30, 2019:

"How many fingers, Winston?"

"You can judge the moral bearing of a political system, a political institution, a political man by ...

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 29, 2019:

“I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures.” ~ Boss Tweed

Bishop plans to spray murder-plagued city with holy water from helicopter to 'get rid of the devil' ...

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

Yet it did nothing the keep pedo-priests at bay by all those using the holy water fonts in church (which when tested have an exceedingly high bacterial count - often fecal for whatever damn reason).

They're not concentration camps, they're Trump Camps

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

Trump Pen Stations - every bit as godawful and overpriced accommodations as his regular shithole properties.

We Could Have Had Electric Cars from the Very Beginning

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

A highly recommended documentary. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vRnUY6V2Knk

Top 10 Reasons The Flintstones Is Set In The Distant Future and Not the Past - Toptenz.net

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

I've read worse clickbait.

If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

:-(

"If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be your religion and your ...

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

:-(

If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 26, 2019:

"If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be your religion and your life." - Philip Berrigan

America's Dental Health Crisis: Modern Life Causes More Tooth Decay, and Care Is Increasingly ...

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Around the time of the ACA being debated, there was an excellent essay by a dentist talking about how essential it was for dental care to be included. He wrote of how preventive care particularly, saved considerable money in treatment considering how expensive treating issues late becomes. It is also a quality of life issue. And people tend to put off what they can't afford. I know even when I was insured, the portion out of pocket and the yearly maximums often made timely treatment burdensome.

[motherjones.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 17, 2019:

Waterlife trailer. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EWTu_fXgaqM

[motherjones.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 17, 2019:

This covered the chemicals in the water cycle quite extensively (requires Adobe Flash). http://waterlife.nfb.ca/

This answers one question I have heard from some concerned citizens.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 13, 2019:

"I love the uneducated." ~ Dolt 45

I was always told that I'd "find religion" in times of crisis or chaos.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 11, 2019:

"Things" are replaceable. You are not. Glad it was not much worse as you show a keen awareness of easily it could have been.

[yahoo.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 11, 2019:

Go home, Joe. You're bought. Bernie2020

Then time went away.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 10, 2019:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lBpRof_kmCE

So, God is in control.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 10, 2019:

In these sort of discussions, I use the plane crash example (to show how fallacious the contention of "God is in control" actually is). All survive - miracle Some survive - miracle All die - God's will If everything that happens is "part of God's plan," then there's no possible element of falsification. So sorry about your child. I cannot imagine how devastating your son's death is for you.

Free Fall — Part 1 by David Chandler

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 10, 2019:

https://medium.com/@davidchandler_61838/free-fall-5efaea1ba1bd Free Fall — Part 2 by David Chandler "In the case of WTC 7 it is clear that there was enough destruction due to an external source of energy to clear the way for eight stories of free fall. The free falling building did not destroy those eight stories. It was the clearing away of those eight stories by other means that allowed the free fall to occur."

52nd Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 9, 2019:

From: https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/08/a-uss-libertys-heros-passing/ "Terry Halbardier, who as a 23-year old seaman in 1967 thwarted Israeli attempts to sink the USS Liberty, died on Aug. 11 in Visalia, California. It took the U.S. government 42 years after the attack to recognize Halbardier’s heroism by awarding him the Silver Star, a delay explained by Washington’s determination to downplay Israeli responsibility for the 34 Americans killed and the 174 wounded. On June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Israeli military attacked the USS Liberty, an American spy ship which had been monitoring Israeli transmissions about the conflict. Intercepted Israeli communications indicated that the goal was to sink the Liberty and leave no survivors."

52nd Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 8, 2019:

From: https://ifamericaknew.org/us_ints/ul-kolb.html "Moreover, the Liberty crew certainly qualifies as one of the most highly decorated for a single ship action. With one Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses and 36 Silver or Bronze Stars for little over a one-hour action, few crews have been so courageous. As Vice Adm. William I. Martin, commander of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, said in July 1967, “I commend to every man who sails in the Sixth Fleet the fact that the USS Liberty has become a legend in her own times."

52nd Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 8, 2019:

From: https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/02/infamy-at-sea-israels-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-50-years-later/ "More proof came to light from the Israeli side. A few years after Attack on the Liberty was originally published, Ennes got a call from Evan Toni, an Israeli pilot. Toni told Ennes that he had just read his book and wanted to tell him his story. Toni said that he was the pilot in the first Israeli Mirage fighter to reach the Liberty. He immediately recognized the ship to be a US Navy vessel. He radioed Israeli air command with this information and asked for instructions. Toni said he was ordered to “attack.” He refused and flew back to the air base at Ashdod. When he arrived he was summarily arrested for disobeying orders."

“Women Are Teachable” Booklet From 1940s

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 8, 2019:

"There's no crying in war material production!"

"4 Disturbing Details You May Have Missed in the Mueller Report .

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 8, 2019:

I still feel a lot of this comes into play (the Rall cartoon). I have not read the report but there were some qualifications (weasel words, essentially). Even terms like "interference" are meant to evoke more than what the reality has established. I think one of the quotes/memes that nailed it for me (I'll try to find it) was how our own domestic vote suppression, voter roll scrubbing, gerrymandering, polling place snafus, vote integrity questions and lack of an audit trail, have done far more damage to our democratic process than the Russian. Additionally, dark money, Citizens United, AIPAC, etc., are also little diacussed. I agree that Trump is corrupt AF, and am all for the obstruction of justice charges, but much of the Russiagate stuff is smoke and mirrors. I also wince at the hypocrisy of politicians sounding the alarm against this supposed interference in our own democracy, when they have, and continue to do, so much worse in the affairs of other nations.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 6, 2019:

And this.

[alternet.

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I'm for as much sunlight on this as possible, no holds barred. :-----: "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out." I, Claudius

Jared Kushner - Palestinians Governing Themselves

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 6, 2019:

"When Kushner says Palestinians are not ready “to govern themselves”, he is really calling upon their hasbara carefully-manufactured image as terrorists. Given Palestinian history of denial and desperation, they are not to be trusted, he is saying. They have yet to accept “civilized” behavior — i.e., mask their rage and pain — and reject “uncivilized behavior.” Kushner’s statements are so outrageous, I hardly know where to begin to address them. Let me start almost exactly a hundred years ago when the Turks lost Palestine in 1918 and their rule was replaced by a “British Mandate”, an agreement between the Allied Powers in 1923, which also incorporated the ambiguous terms of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Ever since then, Palestinian Arabs understood that the phrase “Jewish national home” with its religious connotations in the Declaration was merely a euphemism for a Jewish settler-colonial state and that ‘article 2’ of the Mandate, with its reference to “self-governing institutions”, was a fraud." https://medium.com/@rimanajjar/not-ready-to-govern-themselves-to-kushner-final-status-is-the-status-quo-f14d7b8714d9?sk=7bd4aecde5416f3f7d31cdc41a178859=IwAR1d5XaTzt0n-y0WWNMHuycIco1xHddvr-PihZSAEpGlQDq92DY5rkeNi_s

Jared Kushner - Palestinians Governing Themselves

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 5, 2019:

*Take up the White Man’s burden — Send forth the best ye breed — Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild — Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.* — from The White Man’s Burden — The United States and the Philippine Islands by Rudyard Kipling, 1899 :-----: A Palestinian response to Jared Kushner’s racist remarks Opinion Haidar Eid on June 5, 2019 https://mondoweiss.net/2019/06/palestinian-response-kushners/?fbclid=IwAR3DB2ovrhX-R0SL6EzJmIaBPJ4jCT2Botb3YO0Xy1VcRakKAaxhpwmxi_A

What is your most creative or amusing use of a bungee cord?

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 2, 2019:

My use has to do with innovative applications. My tech coworkers would never lash down PC gear on the hand trucks because they complained they never had enough long bungee cords, often spilling their cargo. We threw away a lot of obsolete cat-5 cable so I'd just create various length loops using a figure 8 knot so that all we needed was the shorter lengths of bungee. Works just as well securing loads on my pickup truck. This stuff all would have gone to a landfill. Even figured out how to fashion a cargo net out of scrap computer cable.

Who wore it better?...

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 2, 2019:

I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for some tax cuts today.

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when it is clearly Ocean. - Arthur C. Clarke

WilliamCharles comments on Jun 1, 2019:

That breathable gas hugging the surface sure comes in handy.

In Flanders Fields BY JOHN MCCRAE In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 31, 2019:

In this line, I think they didn't always know the true enemy robbing them of their lives. :-----: "Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch... "

Thread by @TheMittani: "if you ever wonder why i got politically 'radicalized' it's because i grew ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 31, 2019:

I remember some of the Southern films growing up whether B or mainstream that gave a sense of it at times being a fiefdom off the beaten track where they were a law unto themselves and wanted you to know it. It didn't matter if it were civil rights workers, or hippies, or minorities... if they determined it was in their interest or merely pleasure to give you grief, you were going to get it. Even the catchphrases have a dark undercurrent. "You ain't from around here are you?" "You in a heap a trouble, boy." Now, there's dogwhistles when some things ought not being spoken too publicly.

"We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 31, 2019:

"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." - Albert Schweitzer

The Department of Energy is calling fossil fuels “molecules of freedom” and “freedom gas”

WilliamCharles comments on May 29, 2019:

WTF?!?

Does anyone else also make a point of readign books which have been banned at one time?

WilliamCharles comments on May 28, 2019:

Kurt Vonnegut mentioned that one of the main reasons cited for banning Slaughterhouse Five was something that actually happened to him as he was making his way out of Dresden to Allied lines. The quote in the fictional book was included verbatim. "Get out of the road, you dumb motherfucker!"

Wage peace.

WilliamCharles comments on May 27, 2019:

We've forgotten what helping people can really mean.

(Why) There Was No Jackpot at the End of Capitalism’s Rainbow

WilliamCharles comments on May 26, 2019:

"If we want a social system that is not alienating—one in which production is more decentralized, controlled by workers and communities, with meaningful labor, with smaller-scale agriculture, with human-centered technology, with equality in all spheres of life, with true, substantive democracy, with poisons removed for our soil, air, and water, with as much protection as possible from life’ slings and arrows—then we must look at what we have now as a whole, as an interconnected set or processes and institutions that are utterly alienating. They must be rejected root and branch, attacked all at once and all the time." https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/24/exploitation-and-expropriation-or-why-capitalism-must-be-attacked-with-equal-force-on-every-front/

The War Prayer

WilliamCharles comments on May 25, 2019:

It should be noted, that this same post over on Facebook has some people asking (without irony) why this isn't being deleted as offensive.

Facebook Bans Artist For Transforming MAGA Hats: – Noteworthy - The Journal Blog

WilliamCharles comments on May 24, 2019:

"People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word." ~ George Orwell 1984

I wonder how many members here know that one can purchase an Agnostic.

WilliamCharles comments on May 24, 2019:

Thanks for the link. Was hoping a humanist..com shirt was there too.

Floyd Ming & His Pep Steppers Indian War Whoop VICTOR21294 ( 1928 ) [m.youtube.com]

WilliamCharles comments on May 24, 2019:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IpCK8oUtwdU

The Madness of King Orange

WilliamCharles comments on May 24, 2019:

So much unacknowledged instabilty... exactly what you'd expect from someone declaring themselves "a very stable genius." A Bizarro World of unimaginable proportions is a painfully apparent reality.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange charged with violating Espionage Act [washingtonpost.

WilliamCharles comments on May 23, 2019:

War criminals pissed they were outed.

"As I looked at the stains on the coral, I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians and ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 22, 2019:

The combat Sledge wrote about. Also includes details on Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor. https://www.historynet.com/battle-of-okinawa-the-bloodiest-battle-of-the-pacific-war.htm

If Christian dogma is to be taken seriously, then we are made to believe that God is a ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 22, 2019:

The "Master Plan" certainly seems to involve an awful lot of senseless cruelty.

"As I looked at the stains on the coral, I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians and ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 21, 2019:

"Something in me died at Peleliu. Perhaps it was the childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that Man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places, who do not have to endure war's savagery, will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.” ― Eugene B. Sledge

I love this tune!! [youtu.be]

WilliamCharles comments on May 18, 2019:

Very cool. Great find.

Where Is the Democratic Alternative to Forever War?

WilliamCharles comments on May 17, 2019:

Here is his C-SPAN debate. https://www.c-span.org/video/?458500-1/soho-forum-debate-israeli-palestinian-conflict=879=maj

I am not an Atheist, I am Agnostic. There is a difference, actually a huge difference.

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

From: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot "In an article titled "Is There a God?" commissioned, but never published, by Illustrated magazine in 1952, Russell wrote: Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.[2] In 1958, Russell elaborated on the analogy: I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely."

How many on here either have decided to abandon major social media platforms (FaceBook, Twitter, ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

Love connecting with like-minded activists on Facebook. Hate their heavy handed gatekeeping, even more so that my participation puts money in Zuck's pocket. They label political speech "hate speech" when discussing apartheid Chosanistan, but provide zero details when asked for. Very Kafkaesque. "How many fingers, Winston?"

Who Really Gains from the Gulf Ship ‘Sabotage’?

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

Same as it ever was.

I am not an Atheist, I am Agnostic. There is a difference, actually a huge difference.

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

There's a category of atheist that is essentially agnostic. :-----: "Negative atheism, also called weak atheism and soft atheism, is any type of atheism where a person does not believe in the existence of any deities but does not explicitly assert that there are none. Positive atheism, also called strong atheism and hard atheism, is the form of atheism that additionally asserts that no deities exist." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_atheism

A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today - Los Angeles Times

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

I think of Animal Mother from Full Metal Jacket when he said, "Better you than me." One of the elements of psychological stripping in bootcamp is to blindly follow orders from superiors (the stipulations not to follow unlawful orders largely ignored) and the extent that group approval comes into play. It's an essential part of the mindfuck in conditioning people to kill strangers when told to by the state, regardless of the claims for the rationale. I feel it takes quite a bit of individual and moral courage to buck that indoctrination.

I'm curious to know if some of you can't help themselves saying " Thank God" or Oh my God", even ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

I use "Oh my Glob" from Adventure Time.

Trump is always giving "nicknames" to people he doesn't like.

WilliamCharles comments on May 16, 2019:

The Mango Manchild.

Ok this really is a good one

WilliamCharles comments on May 15, 2019:

And sadly, he just might get a 2nd term if Establishment Dems run a warmongering corporate centrist again.

Flat Earthers, and the Rise of Science Denial in America | Opinion

WilliamCharles comments on May 15, 2019:

Still, having 9/11 thrown in there always catches my eye. I'd love to see scientific demonstrations of the physics of 9/11.

Atheists make up a wide variety of independent thinkers.

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

Insisting that arguments and debates are decided on their merits as much as possible. I consider much of the freethought communty engages in hand-waving with regards to the official 9/11 narrative.

In declassified document, CIA acknowledges role in 1953 Iran coup - CNNPolitics

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

This is doubly sad as Iran had quite a Westernized culture prior to their Islamic Revolution. It's one of the reasons those crying about Russiagate (itself largely unsubstantiated) are so annoying. Pure hypocrisy. :------: "WHY CAN’T IRAN have a secular, democratic government? It’s a question Americans often ask of their longstanding Middle East adversary — especially when they see images of anti-regime protesters taking to the streets of major Iranian cities and towns to demand greater freedom. Unlike citizens of the Islamic Republic, however, citizens of the United States tend to have short memories. The historical reality is that Iran did have a secular, democratic government, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh between 1951 and 1953 — but Mossadegh was removed from power in a coup organized and funded by the CIA and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. With a handful of exceptions — Madeleine Albright in 2000, Barack Obama in 2009 and 2015 — most mainstream U.S. politicians have little to say about any of this sordid history. In Washington, D.C., Iranian hostility toward the U.S. has long been treated as inexplicable and irrational, while the CIA’s role in the 1953 coup — which set off a chain of events that resulted in the rise of Iran’s ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — has vanished into a memory hole. It was left to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, of all people, to remind Americans of the catastrophic consequences of that coup in a televised debate with Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primaries in February 2016: *Mossadegh back in 1953. Nobody knows who Mossadegh was. Democratically elected prime minister of Iran. He was overthrown by British and American interests because he threatened oil interests of the British. And as a result of that, the Shah of Iran came in, terrible dictator, and as a result of that, you had the Iranian Revolution coming in, and that’s where we are today. Unintended consequences.* What Sanders called “unintended consequences,” the CIA calls “blowback.”"

In declassified document, CIA acknowledges role in 1953 Iran coup - CNNPolitics

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

"The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, in documents that also show how the British government tried to block the release of information about its own involvement in his overthrow. On the 60th anniversary of an event often invoked by Iranians as evidence of western meddling, the US national security archive at George Washington University published a series of declassified CIA documents. "The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," reads a previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled The Battle for Iran."

Russiagate’s Goal Has Been Accomplished: The Democratic Base Loves War & Imperialism Now

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

The support for the saber-rattling against Iran largely bears this out.

First post on here, so be gentle.

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

Good luck to you. It must be difficult to step outside the group.

Do you have pictures on your refrigerator?

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

Not where I put mine. My sister has too many cute magnets in inconvenient spots on her fridge, and they're always getting knocked off and broken.

To the people that interact with my posts.

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYnz2-bsJo&t=5s

To the people that interact with my posts.

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

I have actually let Facebook friends know I'm cutting back on a lot of reactions as it puts money in Mark Zuckerberg's pocket. I'm so very tired of their arbitrary gatekeeping.

To the people that interact with my posts.

WilliamCharles comments on May 14, 2019:

Might as well get bonus points for 1st comment. 😋

David Attenborough: Animals are a source of infinite fascination | New Scientist

WilliamCharles comments on May 12, 2019:

Debated using the term "love" in my anthropomorphizing of Earth, but we are an expression of that fecundity, and should be alarmed over our role in the extermination of so many others species that sprung forth long before we ever arose.

‘So Help Me God’ No More: Democrats Give House Traditions a Makeover

WilliamCharles comments on May 11, 2019:

Already GOP heads are exploding (it will likely make a good wedge issue for them). They want it both ways, as when courts rule the language is ceremonial, but they also insist it belongs so as to pay due reverence to their god.

‘So Help Me God’ No More: Democrats Give House Traditions a Makeover

WilliamCharles comments on May 11, 2019:

Some people are so insecure that they demand government endorse their particular irrationalism.

‘So Help Me God’ No More: Democrats Give House Traditions a Makeover

WilliamCharles comments on May 11, 2019:

I've always held IN GOD WE TRUST on the money or anywhere in public spaces is outrageous. It is either a lie as I have no "trust" in any god or gods, or it specifically omits me as part of the WE. Either way, it's wrong.

I've got a job interview today. I'm feeling pretty positive and excited about it.

WilliamCharles comments on May 11, 2019:

To add a little levity to what is often an anxiety producing exercise. 😄

The Evolutionary Mystery of Left-Handedness and What It Reveals About How the Brain Works - Brain ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

Look forward to reading it in its entirety. Not a lefty, though with a few select preferences where the left is the dominant hand.

I am interested in opinions on this statement.

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” ~ Stephen Roberts

I am interested in opinions on this statement.

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

I like a comparison I read saying there's no formal word for those without a belief in leprechauns. An "aleprechaunist" as it were. I also like that others have pointed out the subtle but important distinctions between non-belief, unbelief, and disbelief.

How Jonathan Sacks dumbs-down Jewish history to defend Zionism | Robert A. H. Cohen

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." ~ George Orwell

War of words: why journalists need to understand grammar to write accurately about violence

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." ~ George Orwell

War of words: why journalists need to understand grammar to write accurately about violence

WilliamCharles comments on May 10, 2019:

"All war propaganda consists, in the last resort, in subsituting diabolical abstractions for human beings. Similarly, those who defend war have invented a pleasant sounding vocabulary of abstractions in which to describe the process of mass murder." ~ Aldous Huxley

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

"The Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes made a personal, riveting case for breaking up Facebook in a new essay published in The New York Times today. His argument hinges on the idea that Mark Zuckerberg is a “good, kind person” but one whose “power is unprecedented and un-American” and whose “influence is staggering, far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government.”" https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/how-powerful-mark-zuckerberg/589129/?utm_source=facebook=edit-promo=social=2019-05-09T21%3A04%3A42=the-atlantic=IwAR0PjhQxKddEIKFnHkgV0sVaBD1hTT0exGI1PutCpv51hUSULRMzYKTvSug

I'm friends with one of my bus drivers (I've befriended more than a few over the years actually) and...

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

Interesting observations.

I've got a job interview today. I'm feeling pretty positive and excited about it.

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

May the globs be with you, DNB.

Who lives in Texas and how do you deal with your super religious family & friends?

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

Regarding the Texas theme, my online friend Deborah Mitchell wrote "Growing Up Godless" and tells of her experience raising her kids in Texas, in addition to what others shared encountering religious prejudice. I'm even quoted in the final chapter. :-----: "I see a pattern where the randomness of human actions can be directed through probability for an overall cumulative and positive effect. All throughout our society there is a butterfly effect that we are most always oblivious to… I guess my message is to go boldly forth and increase the peace and love and know you are not alone. You may not always be aware of the others choosing to follow this same path as you, but they’re out there, and they’re making a difference.” ~ LanceThruster [from Debbie Mitchell's book "Growing Up Godless" - Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.] https://www.overdrive.com/media/1577971/growing-up-godless

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

"Facebook’s current business model is fundamentally at odds with democracy and basic human rights. A company that claims to bring people together has been poisoned by a maniacal focus on mass collection of user data to satisfy advertisers. Hundreds of millions have had their privacy violated and their trust betrayed. Enough is enough. Mark Zuckerberg must go. For the longest time we’ve accepted as scripture that Silicon Valley founders had a divine right to lead the most powerful companies ever created. We need to burst this cultish idea. Shareholders realize the problem is at the top. They’re lining up to Vote “No on Zuckerberg” at the upcoming AGM. However, Zuckerberg has structured the company so that he has more voting power than all other shareholders combined. It’s clear we need more than shareholders to make this happen. We need an internet-wide vote of no confidence. Zuckerberg’s resignation would send a message to tech workers, government regulators, advocates, and all who hold Silicon Valley accountable that leadership at these companies is a privilege, not a right. “I know that we don’t exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly,” Zuckerberg quipped at the recent F8 developers conference, forcing a guffaw. The audience was silent. Not even a chuckle. We’re not laughing any more, Mark. And we’re coming for your throne." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/mark-zuckerberg-has-to-go?CMP=fb_gu=Social=Facebook=IwAR3GWOmJhparHeQOVs7Quw9v5L1Y60xalKT1wqB8wDbmpjURhRQVcF3rS50#Echobox=1557326965

Study: At least 78% of humanitarian aid intended for Palestinians ends up in Israel's coffers

WilliamCharles comments on May 9, 2019:

Imagine funding the forces the indigenous resistance was fighting. That is the reality of how the US bankrolls the brutality inflicted on the Palestinian people. Simply shameful.

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 8, 2019:

"Why does the spread of hate speech matter? Hate speech is a hot-button issue for Facebook users who get upset when they flag a post as offensive but Facebook says it does not violate its rules. On the other hand, Facebook has upset users by mistakenly identifying posts as hate speech and taking them down. For example, Facebook had to apologize to a black activist and author after failing to distinguish between the people spreading hate speech and those condemning it. How worried is Facebook about the corrosive effect hate speech can have on the Facebook experience? It's working on ways to stem the flood of hate speech. For example, some Facebook users were surprised recently to see “Does this post contain hate speech?” listed under every post in their News Feed. "This was an internal test we were working on to understand different types of speech, including speech we thought would not be hate. A bug caused it to launch publicly. It's been disabled," Facebook said in a statement." https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/05/15/facebook-having-trouble-fighting-hate-speech/611702002/

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 8, 2019:

"Looking at the rules as a whole, ProPublica reports that Facebook developed the rules in reaction to specific actors’, such as governments and users, complaints. At one point, the rules were open-ended, including a general rule that said, “‘Take down anything else that makes you feel uncomfortable,’” says Dave Willner, a former Facebook employee, in the ProPublica report. Wilner revised the current rules to make them more rigorous. The result, Teichman says, appears to be patchwork constructed not out of some top-down ethical determination, but rather a list slapped together over time. “Categories get this hodgepodge when they're just the result of being stitched together out of complaints people made,” says Teichman." https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-hate-speech-moderation/

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 8, 2019:

"Revealing the guidelines could at least cut down on confusion about whether hateful content is allowed on Facebook. It isn’t. Though the guidelines also raise the question of whether the Facebook value system it codifies means the social network has an editorial voice that would define it as a media company. That could mean the loss of legal immunity for what its users post. Bickert stuck to a rehearsed line that “We are not creating content and we’re not curating content”. Still, some could certainly say all of Facebook’s content filters amount to a curatorial layer. But whether Facebook is a media company or a tech company, it’s a highly profitable company. It needs to spend some more of the billions it earns each quarter applying the policies evenly and forcefully around the world." https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/24/facebook-content-rules/

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 8, 2019:

"Facebook defines seven types of “attacks” that it considers hate speech: calls for exclusion, calls for violence, calls for segregation, degrading generalization, dismissing, cursing and slurs. For users who want to contest Facebook’s rulings, the company offers little recourse. Users can provide feedback on decisions they don’t like, but there is no formal appeals process." https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-enforcement-hate-speech-rules-mistakes

When is it okay to say "I love you"?

WilliamCharles comments on May 7, 2019:

Not letting things progress at their own pace seems a bit like fishing for reciprocation, but it would probably be preferable, at least from my perspective, to qualify these feelings instead by saying things like, "I love spending time with you, I love your take on the world, I love your personality, etc." At this early stage, "I love you," seems to involve more questions than one might have later in the relationship. It's also an unfortunate reality that dating and partnering often pressures some people to try to "close the deal" as it were, out of fear the person they desire and have strong feelings for might "get away." That being said, I remember someone once pointing out, "emotions are neither good nor bad, they just *are*."

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our ...

WilliamCharles comments on May 7, 2019:

Made me think of this for some reason. :-----: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." – Oscar Wilde

Heartbeat Bill in Ohio.

WilliamCharles comments on May 7, 2019:

It's always been about the power to control and oppress.

MAH.

WilliamCharles comments on May 7, 2019:

"Recently two of the elite digital priesthood, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg, called for more privacy and regulation of the internet. Zuckerberg also promised that Facebook “will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure.” Both calls are brazen, self serving & cynical, and exercises in misdirection. The principles of trust, privacy & ethical behaviour were never high on their agenda as they grew their digital, social & cultural hegemonies. They’ve done little to protect our data-actually, legally speaking it’s their data-and that was the way it was always meant to be. Laws protecting our data have long since been undermined by a labyrinth of online contracts & terms and conditions that nobody reads, and what could be euphemistically called a light-touch regulatory framework." https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/06/big-tech-and-the-rise-of-surveillance-capitalism/