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Sometimes one of the exercises one must go through in executive training is a workshop where one puts oneself in another’s shoes. This exercise broadens the perspective of a budding young exec and gives them the rare view not often allowed, of seeing his own problems from his adversaries’ perspective…
Since one is too often, too deep in one’s own crises to think objectively, the formula is to take one’s own fears, correlate them in a fabricated parallel situation, and then role play…. The lesson is that things are often not as simple and clear cut as one naturally assumes, where one sees themselves as good, thereby making all against them, evil…
So, with your indulgence….
May 1st, 2014….
A flash mob of armed farmers stormed the Capitol building in Harrisburg today and took control of the building. The police officers were disarmed and allowed to leave. Hostages are still inside.
May 2nd.
The police of Harrisburg have surround the capitol, but are dwarfed as crowds approaching a million have spontaneously poured in from across Pennsylvania’s countryside in support of the demonstrators inside. The police are taunted and are awaiting reinforcements.
Late afternoon riot police from Philadelphia, with heavy machinery, have arrived. They are expected to storm the building at dawn. The Governor of PA has now officially called this an illegal takeover and has stressed that the supporters give up and go home.
May 3rd. At dawn the Philadelphia police storm the building and with guns blazing, meet fierce resistance. They pull back. The crowds have grown larger as Patriot Groups across the nation have sounded the alarm. Volunteers are pouring in from all over the United States. The Tea Party is now calling for the overthrow of the entire government of PA and the formulation of a new one, more closely aligned to the needs of the country music loving people of rural Pennsylvania….
May 4th. The governor again calls the meeting illegal but the crowds are bigger than the police. It is a stalemate.
May 5th. The federal government has negotiated an agreement between the governor and the demonstrators. The demonstration will be dismissed, and the governor will listen to the needs of the Tea Party and the patriots.
Late afternoon, Sheriff Arapao from Hokey, Dokey Arizona, has called for the elimination of the governor, to be replaced by a constitutional sheriff as head of an interim government.
May 6th. Shots were fired into the crowd by unknown assailants. 100 demonstrators were killed. In the morning the crowd, angered, stormed the capitol to find it empty, doors and files all unlocked, and computer running. No one has seen the governor or his officers.
May 7th. Still no sign of the governor. The head of the Harrisburg Patriot Group declared himself as head of the interim government. and his followers to be the legislative body. In rapid succession they passed several measures…. Taxes were abolished. Slavery of the Negro reinstated. Government welfare abolished. English only could be spoken. No restrictions on buying or selling weaponry of any kind. All questions of legality would be handled by the interim government. And it was also deemed legal to kill any man, woman, or child, for not going to what was considered a “true Christian” church on Sunday morning…
May 8th. Rejoicing erupts spontaneously in the mountains and countryside of PA… South-eastern PA is in shock. Particularly among the dominant Afro-American population, Hispanics, Asians and Muslims. City leaders governing Philadelphia and surrounding counties, say they will respect the interim government’s authority as being that of the state, and try to hold Pennsylvania together… “We are still one state” they say “and will work within the framework provided.”.. There is considerable angst among the blacks however…
May 9th. The US Navy pulls into the Philadelphia Shipyard, where hundreds of mothballed ships lie. The US says it is simply protecting its assets. Civic groups call for the US to send in additional troops to protect Philadelpians. They say they would rather remain in the US than become part of this new Pennsylvania run by Tea Partiers gone amok.
Sheriff Arapao calls on the US not to interfere or intervene and says doing so will be seen as an act of aggression toward the patriots and the US will suffer dire consequences if they do.
The US responds that an Arizona Sheriff has no jurisdiction in Philadelphia.
May 11th. Reports that multiple convoys of armored personal carriers have crossed the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges and have now entered Philadelphia. Conveys were also reported seen along I 95 in Delaware and heading north upwards through Chester, and also up from Maryland along Route 1….
May 12th… The US reports it is not acquiring Philadelphia, but is merely setting a perimeter to protect its new base in the shipyard. Sheriff Arapao is calling on the complete removal of all troops except for the original ones originally located in the shipyard. The US responds that given the violent antics of the Tea Party in Harrisburg, they simply don’t have the trust factor with this new regime to do so.
May 12th. The ousted governor of PA surfaces and holds a press conference in Washington DC and calls for the reinstatement of his government, calling the coup an illegal use of force and an action condoned by no laws or precedents.
Citizens in Philadelphia hold massive demonstrations along the Ben Franklin Parkway in support of a future US occupation. Tea Partiers are holed up in their militia armories, blockaded and surrounded by US forces. There has been no bloodshed reported.
May 13th. The interim government of Tea Partiers has called on the US to leave. The US now has said it is there to stay…. Sheriff Arapao contends that the US is planning to take over all of Eastern PA. The US says that should be decided by referendum, the people have the right to choose with whom they wish to be governed. Sheriff Arapao says that is unfair because everyone knows that in such a vote, most of urban PA would side with staying in the US and not elect to be under the rowdy independence of a sheriff and his posse….
May 14th. Local Tea Party citizens not affiliated with the interim government descend upon the Mexican community of Hazelton and set fire to houses of Mexicans and burn their cars…
May 15th… African communities across the state of PA, and particularly in Pittsburgh, reported sightings of armed men in white robes and several crosses were burned in Three Rivers Point. There were also reported incidents of bricks thrown through windows of minority businesses.
May 16th. Breaking. The interim government just issued a proclamation on sheepskin that declares that no Afro-Americans, no low income, and no Mexicans will be hither allowed in public schools or public buildings. They use is only for white people.
The US immediately calls on them to change, staying those with colored skin that is darker than white, also have rights as well. Sheriff Arapao says the posse do, what the posse do. That is what freedom is… sometimes.
May 17th. The US puts 40,000 troops along the extended border of PA. Is says it is for field training Sheriff Arapao calls it provocative and sends out a call for patriots everywhere to matriculate into PA to fight the US imperialists.
May 18th. Armed personal waving US flags occupy the West Chester Courthouse this morning . There was no blood shed. All participants appearing to be afro-Americans, were masked, well organized and said wore American flags on their logos.
The interim government called it an act of war, and from a hill top of Arizona, Sheriff Arapao called upon Americans to abandon their diets and all drink milkshakes, to apply pressure by shaming the ineffectiveness of Michelle Obama’s healthy diet plan. The US laughed at that retaliation, but Sheriff Arapao claimed it would be highly effective for it would piss off the real power inside the White House…
Meanwhile the interim Tea Party government said it was in a financial crisis. It had no money to pay anyone, it was unable to maintain any governmental services.
May 19th — Early this morning Delaware County courthouse was stormed by what they said were local separatists but all had the same markings as did those in West Chester. The courthouse was quietly taken over, as well as the water plant and sewer.
In West Chester, members of the wealthy neighborhoods who tended to support the Tea Party’s call of no taxes, demonstrated in front of the occupied West Chester courthouse… They were soon outmatched, and overrun by counter demonstrations of relatively poorer African Americans who quickly took control of the street.
May 20th Demonstrators took over the city building in Montgomery PA today. Tea partiers with the help of the PA national guard surrounded the building and set fire to it, after boarding the doors to prevent escape. 48 pro US demonstrators died.
Sheriff Arapao blamed the deaths on the US, saying they were creating the demonstrations and thus forced these 48 to die. The US countered saying most Afro Americans are very concerned that the official potion of the Pennsylvania government is to have them enslaved, and has already banned them from public schools and public buildings, and in this case who were basically doing what was done by the Tea Party originally at the capitol building in Harrisburg.
Sheriff Arapao called the US a liar and called upon all Americans to punish the US by not eating broccoli this time… (Take that Michelle)….
Meanwhile the neighboring states of New York, Ohio, and New Jersey have been working on a deal with the Tea Partiers and the US government. It would involve PA’s borders remaining intact, but give autonomy over each region to that regions’ inhabitants, based on their choices in that election. It would give US control over Philadelphia.
The Tea Party says no deal on elections or future government will be made until the US is completely removed from their territory. The US replies that they will stay until the Tea Party can show they are responsible citizens, willing to let others have rights too.
May 21– The Tea Party with the help of their patriot Vietnam vets flying confiscated national guard helicopters, attacked the strongholds in eastern PA taking over all. 8 people died in the gun battles, several innocent bystanders hit by stray fire. The total dead is over 50. The separatists loyal to the US, quickly retake the buildings after the air power has left.
May 22 — Sheriff Arapao and the interim government call upon the US to move its troops back from the border. The US replies it has, but Sheriff Arapao says his patriots tell him it is not so….
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And that is where Ukraine as seen by Russia is today… It is ironic and sad that due to normal human nature, simply because we Americans been told that Putin is “bad” by people (Sarah Palin) who we don’t really know well, or don’t know if we can trust even at all (Fox News) , how quickly it taints us to jump to that very conclusion, with no supporting facts… Anyone who states an cautionary opinion otherwise, quickly gets pooh-poo’d by the tiny little minds here in the US..
But when roles are reversed, Putin’s own account seems very plausible. As we go forward, we must ask ourselves why the US today in our real world is now playing the role of Sheriff Arapao in the pretend one above… Is it because there are many moles of Sheriff Arapao replicated and buried within our real government, today? People who perhaps, don’t really care about being right or wrong, … but just want a war they’ve been planning in such detail all these years… to finally happen?
Did you ever notice how a fight starts on a elementary school playground? A stare down, and obviously neither wants to do it. but neither wants to hear the taunts of “chicken” either… It starts with one bystander… “Fight, fight, fight, fight,” and gets picked up by his accomplice, “fight, fight, fight, fight,”,,, and then his toady joins in… “fight, fight, fight, fight,” and then innocent bystanders flocking to the sudden outburst, who really have nothing to win or lose but just want some relief from their boredom, find themselves captured and joining in… “fight, fight, fight, fight,,,”…
Maybe they will fight; maybe they won’t… but usually when they don’t…. it is only because an adult stepped into the fight zone and took control…..
The real problem today, is those yelling “fight, fight, fight, fight” inside our nation’s beltway…. They will always be there too. Whether to push Kennedy into the Bay of Pigs, or the US and NATO into a war with Russia.
For them, it is all the same.
Recently all of Delaware called out Chris Coons for supporting war with Iran.
He has now pulled his support from that piece of legislation..
- Obama promised to veto that bill last night in his State of the Union.
- Two others pulled out today as well: Sen. james Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
It’s emotionally tough to go back on one’s word, when one realizes one has made a mistake. However, It is intellectually stupid NOT to do so.
Hat’s off to Chris Coons for listening to the right angel whispering in his ear……
Silicon Valley’s role in US government surveillance has triggered public anxiety about the internet, but it turns out there is at least one tech company you can trust with your data.
Xmission, Utah’s first independent and oldest internet service provider, has spent the past 15 years resolutely shielding customers’ privacy from government snoops in a way that larger rivals appear to have not.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation called it a model for the industry….
And speaking of the EFF, yesterday a Federal judge allows the case Jewel Vrs NSA to go forward into a real court. There is nothing secret about the Constitution the judge said. Either this practice is legal or it isn’t. A court will decided.
Evidence in the case includes undisputed documents provided by former AT&T telecommunications technician Mark Klein showing AT&T has routed copies of Internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA. The case is supported by declarations from three NSA whistleblowers along with a mountain of other evidence. The recent blockbuster revelations about the extent of the NSA spying on telecommunications and Internet activities also bolster EFF’s case.
It appears Edward Snowden tipped the balance. This has been held up 5 years because it supposedly was too secret for trial.
It is clearer now that the biggest benefactors for the NSA spying were commercial enterprises. The Obama administration went along with the Bush plan and accelerated it, primarily to give American companies a heads up, and keep jobs here. It worked too.
One can’t argue with success. But one can find how American businesses were co-opted to assist the NSA. From the Guardian, the following, allegedly from Snowden himself.
• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;
• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;
• Microsoft also worked with the FBI’s Data Intercept Unit to “understand” potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;
• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;
• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a “team sport”.
it is revealing that the beneficiaries of the Patriot Act and probably one of the reasons it has been intact long after terrorism faded offshore, are the exact same who are suing each other left and right, using the anti-piracy laws as their barrage. It appears that laws are not for people anymore; they are for corporations. It is corporations who want the US to fund listening posts for every American word and sentence.
The only way to fix that, is to divide the corporations Teddy-Roosevelt-style, thereby giving We, the People a little more clout. …
Tom Gordan has a chance to show what he is made of. If he comes down against Abbot’s developer, Frank Acierno, we will know he is the real thing back in action supporting the wills of residents over the wills of Pam Scott’s friends Briefly here is the deal. On one hand you have:
- Developed floodplains.
- Horrendous traffic intersections.
- Change in the actual character of the Community
- Shopping Center across from church and school
On the other hand:
- More money for Frank Aceirno and Rich Abbot.
You know who is for it; here is a list of those who are against it….
- City of Newark; City Government
- Holy Angels School and Church
- McDonalds Main Street Newark
- State Rep. Mike Ramone
- State Rep. Paul Baumbach
- State Rep. John Kowalko
- State Rep. Edward S. Osienski
- State Rep. Joe Miro
- State Sen. David Sokola
- Windy Hills Community Association
- Every single human being whose commute takes them through Possum Park intersection.
This is a healthy reminder as to why we have democratic government. The tract includes some nice forests – a 60 acred piece that is
almost totally wooded and has WCC frontage and 2 blue line streams with
forested buffers. All in all some great habitat.
The perpetrators are attempting to sneak through a rezoning of a piece of property considered green, consisting of protected resources – eg. Critical Natural Area, Creek, Stream, Floodplain, Wetlands, Steep Slopes, and Mature Forest and have it rezoned into Regional Commercial. Once that rezoning is complete, anything can be done to that property at any point into the future, no matter what the current assurances by the developers are. With this month’s rezoning if it takes place, in 10 years, with a more favorable administration, a hot, drippy sex club could be built on that property. Who knows!
However, a wall of bipartisanship has swelled up against this project. Every one, Democrat, Republican, Independent thinks it is a bad idea….. This again is the classic tale of people versus big money.
We know who should win; but we don’t yet know who will win….
Call Tom Gordan and let him know. We had an election. Developers don’t run New Castle County any more.
In an effort to blunt the comparison of dead Americans by guns to say dead Japanese, dead Brits, dead Germans, the NRA has said things in America “are not that bad. Stop comparing America to civilized countries! Compare America to the “real world” it insists…
Just for the record here is why. In countries that do control guns in some way, the deaths per 100,000 are low.
In our country, which the NRA lets everyone do whatever they want, our ratio of gun deaths to 100,000 is…….
But as they teach you in beauty school, if you are ugly, hang with someone who is uglier than you. No one will notice.
The NRA wants us to compare ourselves with countries(ratios per 100.000 in parenthesis) like … El Salvador(50.36), Jamaica(47.44), Honduras(46.70), Guatemala(38.52)…. “See, these are bad countries”, says the NRA. “We don’t need to regulate guns yet in the United States.”
Question is this? Does anyone else think it is not cool we are comparing ourselves to former Banana Republics instead of the top civilized societies around the world? It’s like saying we should all be emulating Lindsey Lohan instead of Paris Hilton…..
When I was young, and I haven’t been able to find it, we were forced to read a short story about Death Valley. It was supposedly taken from a diary found next to stripped skelatons, that told of a party lost in the desert, which found an oasis, drank the clear cool water, then got poisoned because it was toxic with arsenic…..
That is what the Tea Party has done for the Republican Party.
Had the Tea Party never been formed, there is a good likelihood that Romney would now be the President-elect. Think about that for a minute. Everything Romney was pummeled for, came from the Tea Party contingent. If a nice man had simply stood up, with Obama’s economic record, that nice man might have won by default. But, every Tea Party issue the Republicans took on, generated more voters against that plank, than it did for.
No taxes; More voters think taxes should be raised on the wealthy.
No Abortions: more voters think the government should continue to make contraception free.
No Government: Hurricane Sandy showed what a disaster that would be.
No Evolution: More people believe science over politicians. Evolution and Global Warming are real.
Put Religious Fanatics in Control: More Americans feel that is too risky.
As a result, Obama won by the 6th largest landslide in American history. People really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, and unequivocally, hate the Tea Party.
I’ve always said the Tea Party was on the right track. Only difference between the two of us, is that they blame government for being in bed with corporate henchmen, and I blame the corporate henchmen for seducing the politicians and infiltrating government. On that and views on science, we differ.
But, they blew up. Glenn Beck, blew up. Rush Limbaugh, blew up, Christine O’Donnell, blew up. Rupert Mourdock, blew up. Todd Akins, blew up. Ann Coulter, blew up. Michelle Malkin, blew up. Especially karl Rove on Fox News… blew up..
There is a reason some people are the last to get picked on a pickup team. They are creepy. And that is todays Tea Party…
The Tea Party is the significant reason Congress today is divided. It is impossible for Republicans to get any majority in the Senate, because the Tea Party sets every one against them.
This metaphor explains why. Imagine if instead of winning Germany in 1932, the Nazi Party was just a minor party in the Reichstag. Assume they had one plank in their platform: Banish all Jews. Assume they were aligned with the Republican Party of Germany because it was small, and Jews were a big bloc of the German Democratic Party… Because the Republicans needed the Nazi’s to have a majority, they entertained their notion of banishing all Jews. The Republicans griped it was a necessary evil that had to be tolerated, and longed for the day, it would die on its own… But because of that one embarrassing group, the whole Republican Party kept getting bashed in every election, getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller…
Finally they eject the Nazi’s who quickly die from lack of oxygen. Upon the next election, Republicans make great gains. You see, people weren’t real happy with the Democrats either, but as long as Nazi’s were in the Republican Party, the Democrats were the lesser of the two evils….
The Tea Party Congress, the soon to be historical name for the 112th Congress, will have the notoriety of being the worst Congress held in public esteem, ever since public esteem was invented back in the 1940’s. An approval rating of 9%. 9%. That is what the Tea Party did to government.
The fiscal cliff today drags on. Because as Obama put it so well today, the Tea Party won’t compromise. No surrender is their motto, which may sound great if it is the same philosophy as the rest of the country’s, but it isn’t. We are witnessing the childish two year old tantrum of a immature group that can’t get everything it wants. Like a two year old child, it sits down on the Capitol floor, and screams, screams, screams, screams, screams, screams….. Like that two year old child, because no one comes up and kicks him in the head and instead everyone tries to plead with him to stop, he thinks he is doing the right thing!
As I said, it was the Tea Party that destroyed Republican chances at the White House, and kept them from taking the Senate. How much longer will the Republicans try to bargain with this two year old?
Perhaps they could find some Arsenic to put in its baby bottle?
The administrative office in the Delaware Department of Education is trying to keep up with all the paperwork it is being fed. It is failing. If the Delaware Department of Education were to receive a grade, it would not be a passing one…..
The state of Delaware administered state “pretested” in math and ELA late Nov & early Dec…. then in a surprise delivery FedEx’d to the schools, they finally received bubble sheets! (Bubble sheets are the answer forms where you fill in the circles for answers A<B<C<D<E..) They arrived Monday this week, two weeks after testing. Students were then given the tests they had previously taken and told to bubble in their responses. These bubble sheets are dated 9/01/2012. Students then bubbled in their Nov 30 responses today. These tests will be part of each teachers component V evaluation.
Obviously the DOE purchaser/controller thought the answers came with the test packets… “I didn’t know they’d charge for the tests and then charge extra for the bubble packs? They never used to before we went with this (use this one only) corporate supplier….”
(Of course they’d be separate! What part of “We Profit Off Of Education” don’t you understand?)
Now pretend you are a student. You actually like learning. You get pulled out of instruction to take a test. Ok, you live with that. Then you get pulled out again, to fill in the answers because you were not given the proper tools the first time. Put yourself back 20,30,40,50 years. How many of you, since obviously the entire test was a joke anyways, would fill in all “A”s” to get it over with?
I would.
So, was this entire thing arranged to force test scores to be low, enabling the DOE to fire anyone who doesn’t support them fully? It actually is a good idea if they thought or it. What a brilliant way to get rid of the DSEA. “Sorry, your scores are a zero. You’re fired….”
I doubt that. But, either way, the signal sent to every student who had to retake the test, was that our schools are incompetent.
Anyone familiar with corporate philosophy readily understands what is happening. In corporate takeovers, you destroy, then you build up. Often, you go bankrupt.
So Jack. some advice: here is what you need to do..
Have every teacher drop a line to the DSEA expressing their frustration and recommendation.
In Dover Downs, a one day meeting with every teacher in the state. Special holiday for kids. Early February at the latest.
“Teachers: We are here because the corporate system is not working. There are good elements that we want to keep. How can we form a union between teachers and corporate sponsors, so everyone is covering the backs of the other? We need this fixed. We need you to do it”.
Let the top ten best responses to the questionnaire each give a 5 minute talk…
Then let the discussion begin and sit back and try to find a broad solution that accomplishes the mission. Which is? To teach kids.
Be prepared to scrap excessive testing. Be prepared to scrap evaluations. From what I hear that is sucking time away from teaching. Be prepared to incarcerate bully students, without parental approval.
Just some ideas.
But if you don’t bring on the teachers in your race to the top, it won’t fly.
Many of the same players behind the John Kerry Swiftboating incident, are also behind the attempt to do so to Obama. However, America is wiser.
The cast:
E. Mark Braden….. chief counsel for the Republican National Committee. since leaving, he has represented numerous Republican-related political causes….
Michael Smith….. Republican political consultant, also was involved in group called Making America’s Promise Secure, and Majority America.
Carl Lindner…… backed numerous conservative causes – including the original 2004 “Swift Boat” campaign against John Kerry.
Greener and Hook….. conservative propagandist widely known for sponsoring wacky off beat conservative morons.
The Trailblazer Group…… founded by the deputy campaign manager of Palin/McCain, and the Director of Operations for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa.
The attempt by these high powered Republicans is to protray the Obama campaign as weak on leaks. However, truth is Dick Cheney caused more leaks in one month than have occurred over the entire Obama presidency.
Note: all proper news organizations have disavowed all claims being made in the video, determining it to be…”wishful fiction”……
kavips 