George Carlin famously gave us the seven dirty words that you can’t say on television: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. The Oxford University Press, in an exercise of collocation, went Carlin one better and gives us eight words that indicate English (or for we secessionists on the other side of the pond, American) is sexist.

David Shariatmadari, writing in Eight words that reveal the sexism at the heart of the English language for The Guardian elaborates:

Language, as the medium through which we conduct almost all relationships, public and private, bears the precise imprint of our cultural attitudes. The history of language, then, is like a fossil record of how those attitudes have evolved, or how stubbornly they have stayed the same.

When it comes to women, the message is a depressing one. The denigration of half of the population has embedded itself in the language in ways you may not even be aware of. Often this takes the form of “pejoration”: when the meaning of the word “gets worse” over time. Linguists have long observed that words referring to women undergo this process more often than those referring to men.

You can find the full list in the article, but I’m a little surprised that the word hysterical didn’t make the list. Perhaps because that particular term never had a positive or equivalent meaning. The Collins English Dictionary (my current go-to dictionary) begins here:

Hysterical or or hysteric. Definitions, adjective: of or suggesting hysteria, suffering from hysteria, (informal) wildly funny. Synonyms: frenzied, mad, frantic, raving, distracted, distraught, crazed, uncontrollable, berserk, overwrought, convulsive, beside yourself, berko (Australian) (slang), hilarious, uproarious, side-splitting, farcical, comical, wildly funny.

There’s nothing there, however, about women or females. Right?

Well… How about a root then, like hysteria?

Hysteria. Definitions, noun: a mental disorder characterized by emotional outbursts, susceptibility to autosuggestion, and, often, symptoms such as paralysis that mimic the effects of physical disorders. See also conversion disorder. Any frenzied emotional state, esp of laughter or crying. Word Origin: from New Latin, from Latin hystericus, hysteric

Aha! Latin! Following the word trail to hysteric we get:

Hysteric. Definitions, noun: a hysterical person.

Damn, still nothing. Reading, reading, reading… Bingo!

Word Origin: from Latin hystericus literally: of the womb, from Greek husterikos, from hustera the womb; from the belief that hysteria in women originated in disorders of the womb.

Now reread that last bit slowly: from the belief that hysteria (frenzy, panic, madness, agitation, delirium, hysterics, unreason. JH) in women originated in disorders of the womb.

This is why dictionaries are possibly the most powerful tool on the planet.

From Quinnipiac University:

With strong support from men, very liberal and younger voters, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders takes 49 percent of Iowa likely Democratic Caucus participants, with 45 percent for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 4 percent for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This is virtually unchanged from results of a January 12 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University showing Sanders at 49 percent, with 44 percent for Clinton and 4 percent for O’Malley.

Today, 2 percent are undecided and 19 percent of those who name a candidate say they might change their mind.

The gender gap remains as men back Sanders 63 – 32 percent, while women back Clinton 54 – 40 percent.

Likely Democratic Caucus participants 18 to 44 years old back Sanders over Clinton 78 – 21 percent. Clinton is ahead 53 – 39 percent among voters 45 to 64 years old and 71 – 21 percent among voters over 65 years old.

“Is this deja vu all over again? Who would have thunk it when the campaign began? Secretary Hillary Clinton struggling to keep up with Sen. Bernie Sanders in the final week before the Iowa caucus,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

“It must make her think of eight years ago when her failure in Iowa cost her the presidency.”

“Perhaps more than other contests, the Iowa caucuses are all about turnout. If those young, very liberal Democratic Caucus participants show up Monday and are organized, it will be a good night for Sen. Sanders,” Brown said.

“And if Sanders does win Iowa, that could keep a long-shot nomination scenario alive.”

Update: 2 February—This morning Bernie’s campaign is very much alive.

Robert Reich writes:

1. He’d never beat Trump or Cruz in a general election.

Wrong. According to the latest polls, Bernie is the strongest Democratic candidate in the general election….

2. He couldn’t get any of his ideas implemented because Congress would reject them.

If both house of Congress remain in Republican hands, no Democrat will be able to get much legislation through Congress….

3. America would never elect a socialist.

P-l-e-a-s-e. America’s most successful and beloved government programs are social insurance—Social Security and Medicare.

4. His single-payer healthcare proposal would cost so much it would require raising taxes on the middle class.

This is a duplicitous argument. Studies show that a single-payer system would be far cheaper than our current system….

5. His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.

Baloney. Three-quarters of college students today already attend public universities financed largely by state governments….

6. He’s too old.

Untrue. He’s in great health. Have you seen how agile and forceful he is as he campaigns…?

Bernie is the right candidate at the right time and in the right place.

After listening to Bernie’s commercial I needed to go back and remember the original…

Will Bates of 350.org writes:

Dear friend,

It’s official: this week NASA confirmed that 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded. And it’s not just warmer weather that people have been feeling. The impacts of a climate being cooked by a reckless fossil fuel industry are being felt right around the world. From devastating flooding to seemingly endless drought, the message each disaster sends is clear—the time for procrastination is long gone, and the need for action has never been more urgent.

With a global climate deal in Paris done, the world has a choice: This could be a time we look back on as the moment the curtain came down on the fossil fuel age, and we began to build the 100 percent clean energy future that we need. Or it could be the aftermath of another failed global agreement—a missed opportunity, sabotaged by the fossil fuel industry and their political allies.

To make sure that the Paris deal results in real climate action, people are beginning to organise a historic wave of nonviolent actions around the world in May of this year. This wave of actions is called Break Free from Fossil Fuels, and it’s how the people are going to make sure that this moment is remembered as a turning point.

Actions are being planned at locations in 12 countries, and plans are coming together quickly.

The Paris agreement leaves a lot of work to be done: the timeline for action is far too long, and there is no plan for how countries will reduce their emissions at the scale and rate necessary. There is a gap between the target that governments have set themselves and what their commitments will lead to. It is up to us to do the work that will close that gap.

There is no way to reach the 1.5 degree target that governments aspire to while continuing to dig coal, oil and gas out of the ground. But governments around the world are still continuing to approve new fossil fuel projects, which will commit us to years more warming.

Break Free from Fossil Fuels is different from anything we’ve been a part of before: dozens of major actions around the globe, non-violently escalating the fight against the worst fossil fuel projects on earth, coordinated to show that we are united against the fossil fuel industry’s power.

We’ve marched, we’ve signed petitions, and we’ve demonstrated for climate action. But this is the critical moment, and climate action is even more urgent than ever before. That’s why in May 2016 we will be joining with partners around the world to take things to the next level. We will directly confront those who are responsible for climate change, put our bodies in the way of business as usual, and take bold action in support of a 100% renewable energy future.

It’s up to us to close the gap between rhetoric and reality.

We’re ready. Are you? Sign up to be a part of this historic moment.

Onward,

Will on behalf of the Break Free coordinating team

So, media is frustrated because technology is thwarting their need to demand we watch their commercials and like the petulant children they are, they are resorting to holding their breath until they turn blue.

Guess what, I don’t care. I don’t need to watch Larry Wilmore so badly that I’m willing to turn off ad block. My life doesn’t depend upon watching Larry Wilmore. My self esteem and social standing doesn’t depend upon what Larry Wilmore or his guests have to say.

If my life did, I’d subscribe.

My life doesn’t, however, and I don’t.

Damian Carrington, writing in 2015 smashes record for hottest year, final figures confirm for The Guardian ledes:

2015 smashed the record for the hottest year since reporting began in 1850, according to the first full-year figures from the world’s three principal temperature estimates.

Data released on Wednesday by the UK Met Office shows the average global temperature in 2015 was 0.75C higher than the long-term average between 1961 and 1990, much higher than the 0.57C in 2014, which itself was a record. The Met Office also expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature records will have been broken for three years running.

Temperature data released in the US on Wednesday by Nasa and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) also showed 2015 shattered previous records.

Yes, El Nino contributed to this record, and yes, the existential threat is complex, but that does not make finding solutions insurmountable.

Believing the lies of the fossil fuel industry, however, is not one of the options.

Long before the Internet and Cable Television amplified the problem, I understood how news could become a debilitating burden. I learned the principle in my sophomore English class when I first read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (the first hardback book I ever purchased). There Thoreau wrote:

I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter—we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?

In recent years the idea of a news fast or going offline has become fashionable. Last week Oliver Burkeman, in Is less news good news? wrote:

I just got grumbly about the world, like a walking embodiment of that bumper-sticker: “Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?”

One problem is that merely knowing that the news focuses disproportionately on negative and scary stories doesn’t mean you’ll adjust your emotions accordingly. People like me scorn Trump and the Daily Mail for sowing unwarranted fears. We know that the risk of dying in traffic is vastly greater than from terrorism. We may even know that US gun crime is in dramatic decline, that global economic inequality is decreasing, or that there’s not much evidence that police brutality is on the rise. (We just see more of it, thanks to smartphones.) But, apparently, the part of our minds that knows these facts isn’t the same part that decides whether to feel upbeat or despairing. It’s entirely possible to know things are pretty good, yet feel as if they’re terrible.

Where this leads is part of the problem:

..technology connects us to more and more of the world’s suffering, of which there’s an essentially infinite amount, until feeling steamrollered by it becomes structurally inevitable – not a sign that life’s getting worse. And the consequences go beyond glumness. They include “compassion fade”, the well-studied effect whereby our urge to help the unfortunate declines as their numbers increase.

Compassion, like Willpower, is a finite resource. Spread those resources too thinly and they fade away to nothing.

That which will kill us is not what we don’t know, but what we believe we know that is false.

I vote in the Democratic Party primaries. I’m supporting Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders with more money than I have any political candidate in the past; and I can’t imagine a bizarro world where I’d vote for a Republican, but I stopped self-identifying as a Democrat some six years ago after Barack Hussein Obama—a man I swore would be the last Democratic president I would ever vote for if he morphed the way Bill Clinton had—became just another tool of the billionaire class.

The Democratic Party has rotted from the top as Glenn Greenwald illustrates in Meet Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s First-Ever Primary Challenger: Tim Canova

In general, Wasserman Schultz is the living, breathing embodiment of everything rotted and corrupt about the Democratic Party: a corporatist who overwhelmingly relies on corporate money to keep her job, a hawk who supports the most bellicose aspects of U.S. foreign policy, a key member of the “centrist” and “moderate” pro-growth New Democrat coalition, a co-sponsor of the failed Stop Online Piracy Act, which was “heavily backed by D.C. favorites including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the music and motion picture industries” and which, if enacted, would have allowed extreme government and corporate control over the internet.

This little note is icing on the Democratic Party death cake.

The danger in the Tim McGinty/Michael O’Malley race for County Prosecutor is the possibility of a return to the corrupt politics of the past.

The divisions are already apparent. Rep. Marcia Fudge and two black ministerial groups have refused to meet with County Prosecutor McGinty. This is counterproductive for the black community.

Much of the displeasure with McGinty evolves rightly out of his suspect handling of the grand jury decision in the Tamir Rice case. He directed the decision exonerating two Cleveland police officers in the criminal shooting of the 12-year old boy. Film of the encounter showed Officer Timothy Loehmann gunning down the child within two seconds as a police car slid in front of the boy.

It has made McGinty vulnerable. But look who is taking advantage.

O’Malley candidacy is troubling. This is an attempt of a return of a power-hungry force in our local politics.

It’s difficult to divorce Michael from the past politics of former prosecutor Bill Mason and former County Recorder Pat O’Malley, his brother. Dangerous, too. Mason & O’Malley were long-time close allies. They have played an underhanded game of power politics.

Why go back to their brand of politicking.

I called Michael O’Malley a run-of-the-mill former Cleveland councilman. He was mild mannered compared to his brother Pat. (Pat spent time in jail on Continue Reading »

This is a brilliant piece of political theater and a perfect example of how to respond to objectionable speech.

Opponents of the men currently occupying a federal building in Oregon are using the weapon of humor and ridicule by sending dozens of dildos and other penis-shaped presents to the armed militants.

Calling it “hate mail”, “militia” organizer Jon Ritzheimer is refusing to bend over and take it, after posting a video on Facebook complaining about the special ‘packages’.

“They spend and waste their money on all this hateful stuff to send out here to us, and buy this ridiculous stuff, even this one was really funny, a bag of d**ks,” Ritzheimer said. “For the rest of you ‘patriots’ out there, twiddling your thumbs, wondering whether or not you should come out, well, now’s the time.”

I’m also fully in Judge Grasty’s camp:

An Oregon judge says that he will send the ranchers and anti-government activists the bill for security costs that have been piled up because of their standoff with the federal government.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty said the cost of setting up security measures for Ammon Bundy and his militia is between $60,000 and $70,000 a day.

“We’re going to send Mr. Bundy the bill,” Grasty told KTVZ-TV.

The militia has been occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Preserve in eastern Oregon since January 2, and schools in the areas were closed until Monday due to security concerns. The protesters, many of whom are not from Oregon, claim that they are standing up for a pair of local ranchers who are serving five years in prison on what they believe are trumped up terrorism charges for starting a brush fire. They have also demanded the transfer of the federally owned land to the county, according to KTVZ-TV.

In addition to the costly increase in security that Bundy and company brought, Grasty said that the “bill” would be for the salaries of teachers and other public employees who didn’t go into work when schools and government buildings were closed due to the standoff.

Yall Qaeda needs to be held accountable for this childish tantrum.

You may notice that publications just love to name their Business Executive of the Year. So much fun!

It’s so easy to do.

Publications love easy, quick stuff. Lazy too. I used to hate, when I was a young reporter, an editor telling, “Go look up the clip to see how we did it last year.” In other words, it is like a formula, nearly all you have to do is change the name and the year. Again, lazy.

The Best Executive wins you Brownie points with the people who run things. That’s important too. Publications love being loved by elites.

Well, I’d like to change the game a bit. I’d like to name the Business Glutton of the Year.
It goes hands down to Alexander “Sandy” (how cute) Cutler of Eaton Corp.

As of 2014 Cutler has earned $16,747,752 at Eaton. He was made boss in 2000. He’ll retire this year. Benefits will still flow.

It reminded me that one of my past Eaton Corp bosses was also a favorite to examine.
E. Mandel deWindt.

To show, however, how things have changed (rich getting richer) in 1971 in point of viǝw, a newsletter I wrote and published, I noted that deWindt earned a whopping $190,000 a year. A piker to Cutler.

He was a major business figure in the late 1960s & 1970s.

He was big in the United Way world, of course. I remember at a press conference asking him just how much HE gave to United Way. I wanted to compare it to the .6 percent expected from his employees. Did he give his “fair share,” as they call it?

Indignation! Why that’s a private matter, he huffed. But, of course, employees were pressured to give and the boss knew just how much they pledged.

But for deWindt, it was a private matter.

I digressed.

Eaton moved from downtown Cleveland to Beachwood. It took advantage of the open, virgin land of Chagrin Highlands and some other goodies.

Land opened for the late developer Dick Jacobs by Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes. They played Give it Away just before they left office. Voinovich aided his former law partner and both served to grease the biggest land deal here in nearly a century. Cleveland, thanks to former Mayor Tom Johnson, owned that land in its suburbs. Very valuable land.

Voinovich gave more assistance as Governor causing the state spend more than $130 million on I-271 to make sure Chagrin Highlands had convenient roads and exits.

Eaton, under Cutler, took 53 clean acres to build a 600,000 square foot office headquarters.

Eaton and Cutler also took advantage of the goodies that our local officials always give to those who don’t need it. Beachwood gave the company a $10 million tax credit on its local income taxes. The Cuyahoga-Cleveland Port Authority issued $170 million in tax free bonds, allowing dodging of federal taxes.

It doesn’t end there.

It didn’t stop there.

As I previously wrote of the goodies given Eaton to transfer more than 400 jobs from Cleveland:

Eaton Corp.—Some portion of a TIF (form of abatement by diverting property taxes from Cuyahoga County) value of $141,338,100. In addition, the Eaton project on land opened by the Chagrin Highland deal in 1989 between Cleveland and various suburbs got $15.5 million in state loans, tax credits worth some $53 million; $1.25 million in new road work to its project, some $10 million in tax credits, according to the Plain Dealer.

Whopping generosity to the already wealthy corporation and its bosses.

And how did Sandy reward taxpayers. He built his headquarter building in Beachwood, leaving the city behind. But he also moved his headquarter address for tax purposes—to Ireland. In other words, he dodges federal taxes and you and I pay.

That should save Eaton (and help Sandy’s next bonus) $160 million. Every year. From the U. S. treasury.

That’s the kind of piggish guy Sandy and Eaton are.

That’s why he earned the 2016 Gluttonous Businessman of the Year award.
He truly deserves it.

By Roldo Bartimole…

I’m no fan of Moveon, but this news is welcome.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday welcomed the endorsement of MoveOn.org Political Action. Sanders won an overwhelming 78.6 percent of the 340,665 votes cast by members, a record number of votes and the largest margin of victory in a presidential endorsement in MoveOn history.

“I’m proud to have MoveOn and its community of millions of members join our people-powered campaign,” Sanders said. “MoveOn has spent more than 17 years bringing people together to fight for progressive change and stand up against big money interests. MoveOn’s fight to give the American people a voice in our political system was reflected in the group’s internal democratic process. I’m humbled by their support and welcome MoveOn’s members to the political revolution.”

“This is a massive vote in favor of Bernie Sanders, showing that grassroots progressives across the country are excited and inspired by his message and track record of standing up to big money and corporate interests to reclaim our democracy for the American people,” said Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn.org political action executive director. “MoveOn members are feeling the Bern. We will mobilize aggressively to add our collective people power to the growing movement behind the Sanders campaign.”

Why did MoveOn members vote the way they did? Ilya Sheyman explains in The Top 5 Reasons MoveOn Members Voted to Endorse Bernie (with the Most Votes and Widest Margin in Our History).

In his essay England Your England, George Orwell explained why British soldiers don’t goose-step.

One rapid but fairly sure guide to the social atmosphere of a country is the parade-step of its army. A military parade is really a kind of ritual dance, something like a ballet, expressing a certain philosophy of life. The goose-step, for instance, is one of the most horrible sights in the world, far more terrifying than a dive-bomber. It is simply an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face. Its ugliness is part of its essence, for what it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me’, like the bully who makes faces at his victim. Why is the goose-step not used in England? There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing. It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army. The Italians adopted the goose-step at about the time when Italy passed definitely under German control, and, as one would expect, they do it less well than the Germans. The Vichy government, if it survives, is bound to introduce a stiffer parade-ground discipline into what is left of the French army. In the British army the drill is rigid and complicated, full of memories of the eighteenth century, but without definite swagger; the march is merely a formalized walk. It belongs to a society which is ruled by the sword, no doubt, but a sword which must never be taken out of the scabbard.

The rationale holds for the United States as well and the well-groomed cowboys occupying the Malheur federal wildlife preserve in Oregon are getting a richly deserved lesson in the proper response to offensive speech: more speech. Stephen Colbert is sending cookies, Alison Headley created the Snacksden Flag and Matt Taibbi is all over the weepy men of Yall Qaeda.

Every time these people open their mouths, it’s comedy. Earlier this week Bundy gave an interview to CNN in which he tried to play up the “We come in peace” meme they’ve been pushing from the start. Like the “nobody’s wearing camo except the camo I’m wearing” line, “It’s a peaceful protest, except for the rifles which we won’t use unless we have to” is also high comedy, although not a single person in the group seems to realize it.

Sounding exquisitely reasonable Wednesday, Bundy said, “There is a time to go home. We recognize that. We don’t feel it’s quite time yet.”

Except Bundy will not be going home, after all. His next stop, if it’s not the afterlife, will almost certainly be in a cell next to serial poisoner Michael Swango, or Richard Reid the shoe bomber, in the supermax in Florence, Colorado. There will be no snack shortage there, although he’ll be getting them through a slit in a door. Maybe they’ll let him take up macramé?

Bundy seems not to get this, however. He’s convinced that this will all get worked out, as soon as the federal government releases the Hammonds from prison (what is this, a list of demands from Hezbollah?) and hands over a healthy swath of federal land to private ranchers. “We need to make sure that there is some teeth in these land transfers,” he said confidently.

It has been suggested that it’s somehow wrong to laugh at the Y’all Qaeda/Vanilla ISIS movement. “The idea that satire… can serve as a bulwark against far-right ideas is provably false,” writes Natasha Lennard at AlJazeera.com. She goes on to point out that the paranoia and xenophobic racism of people like Bundy are not funny, and neither are the redneck caricatures that have spilled across the Internet in the last week as this “siege” played itself out.

“Satire that deploys classism to skewer racists and conservatives is certainly such a worst case,” she says. “Why not focus on their very real, very frightening beliefs?”

There’s no doubt that these people are dangerous, but their ridiculousness is a huge part of who they are.

I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow. I must remember to stock up on munchies so that I can snack while I enjoy the comedy.

Anger works.

Rage works.

Being mad as hell and vowing not to take it anymore works.

Rebellion works.

Revolution works.

Revenge works.

Ralph Nader writes in The Rumble from the People Can Work that:

If only the people who engage in “road rage” would engage in “corporate rage” when they are harmed by cover-ups or hazardous products and gouging services, aloof CEOs would start getting serious about safety and fair play. With press report after press report documenting how big business stiffs millions of its consumers and workers, why is it that more of these victims do not externalize some of their inner agonies by channeling them into civic outrage?

It has happened on occasion and with good results. After Candy Lightner lost her daughter to a drunk driver, she founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1980 as the only way she could deal with her intense grief. Asked what her principal motivation was in building a national movement to put homicide-producing drunk drivers behind bars, she replied: “Revenge.”

I recently had a conversation about mass shootings and gun control and I commented that not until someone like Ms. Lightner got monumentally pissed off, people would continue to talk about gun violence and people would be injured, maimed and slain by firearms in the United States. Please note that I’m not making any judgment about our Second Amendment or the ownership of guns in our country, I’m simply saying that change only happens when someone gets mad.

As one of my personal heroes once wrote: Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.

Want to make a change in 2016? Get mad.

*Thank you Mr. Freberg.